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America wt Diigovered by Columbus. 



AN HISTORICAL SKETCH 



Discovery of America by the Norsemen 



IN THE TENTH CENTURY. 
By RASMUS B. ANDERSON, A.xM., 

PROFESSOR OF THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES IN THE UXrVERSITY OF WISCONSIN; 
HONORARY MEMBER OP THE ICELANDIC LITERARY SOCIETY. 



WITH AN APPENDIX 

ON THE HISTORICAL, LINGUISTIC, -LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC VALUE 
OF THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 

ALSO A 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

OF THE 

PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA, 

By PAUL BARRON WATSON. 



THIRD EDITION, ENLARGED. 




CHICAGO: 
S. C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY. 

1883. 



Copyright, 1874, 
By S. C. GRIGGS AND COI^II'ANY. 



Copyright, 1883, 
By S. C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY. 



KNIGHT &. LEONARD, PRINTERS, CHICAGO- 



PREFACE 



IN preparing this sketch, the author has freely 
made use of such material as he considered 
valuable for his purpose from the works of Torfgeus, 
C. C. Eafn, J. T. Smith, N. L. Beamish, G. Gra- 
vier, B. F. De Costa, A. Davis, Washington Irving, 
R. M. Ballantyne, P. A.- Munch, R. Keyser, and 
others, and he is under special obligations to Dr. 
S. H. Carpenter, of the University of Wisconsin, for 
valuable suggestions. 

This sketch does not claim to be without faults. 
The style may seem dull and heavy, but it is hoped 
that the reader will be generous in criticising an 
author w^ho now makes his first appearance before 
the American public. The object of this sketch 
has been to present a readable and truthful narrative 
of the Norse discovery of America, to create some 
interest in the people, the literature, and the early 
institutions of Norway, and especially in Iceland, — 
that lonely and weird island, — the Ultima Thule 



PREFACE. 



of the Greek Philosophers; and of the good or ill 
performance of the task, a generous public must be 
the judge 



University op Wisconsin, 

June 18, 1874. 



CONTEHTTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Norsemen, and other Peoples, interested in 

THE Discovery of America, ----- 35 

CHAPTER II. 
Norse Literature has been Neglected by the 

Learned Men of the Great Nations, - - 41 

CHAPTER III. 
Antiquity of America, ------- 45 

CHAPTER IV. 
Phenician, Greek, Irish, and Welsh Claims, - - 47 

CHAPTER V. 
Who Were the Norsemen? 49 

CHAPTER VI. 
Iceland, - - 52 

CHAPTER VII. 
Greenland, -----.... 53 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Ships of the Norsemen, 61 



6 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Sagas and Documents are Genuine, - - . 64 

CHAPTER X. 
Bjarne Herjulfson, 986, - - - - - - 68 

CHAPTER XL 
Leif Erikson, 1000, 71 

CHAPTER XII. 
Thorvald Ertkson, 1002, 75 

CHAPTER Xni. 
Thorstein Erikson, 1005, 78 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Thorfinn Karlsefne and Gudrid, 1007, - - - 79 

CHAPTER XV. 
Other Expeditions by the Norsemen, - - - 84 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Discovery op America by Columbus, - - - 85 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Conclusion, 93 

APPENDIX. 

The Scandinavian Languages, 95 

Bibliography of the Pre-Columbian Discoveries of 

America, --------- 121 



PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 



SINCE the first edition of this little book was 
published, the discovery of America has received 
much attention. The claims of the JSTorsemen, the 
Irish, the Welsh, and even of the Chinese, have all 
been warmly advocated. 

In presenting this new edition of "America not 
discovered by Columbus," we desire to call the read- 
er's attention to some of the literature that has ap- 
peared since the publication of our volume. We pass 
over in silence all the newspaper and magazine arti- 
cles and reviews, confining ourselves to what has been 
put in book form. 

1. Immediately after the publication of our book, 
in 1874, appeared a very remarkable work, by Aaron 
Goodrich, entitled, " A History of the Character and 
Achievements of the so-called Christopher Columbus, 
with numerous Illustrations and an Appendix " (New 
York, D. Appleton & Co.). Goodrich pronounces 
Columbus a fraud, and denounces him as mean, selfish, 
perfidious and cruel. He has evidently made a very 
careful study of the life of Columbus, and we have 
looked in vain for a satisfactory refutation of his state- 



» PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 

merits. In Mr. Goodrich's book wil] be found a brief 
but tolerably accurate sketch of the Norse discovery 
of this continent. 

2. In 1875 appeared the following books : 
. {a) " The Island of Fire," by P. C. Headley. Its 
ninth chapter treats of the discovery of America by 
the Norsemen. 

{h) " Young Folks' History of the United States," 
by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Its fourth chap- 
ter treats of the Norse discovery. 

{c) " A Grammar School History of the United 
States," by John J. Anderson (New York). The first 
section gives a synopsis of the Norse discovery. 

[d) "Lectures delivered in America," by Charles 
Kingsley. The third lecture is upon the first discov- 
ery of America. 

{e) " Fusang, or the Discovery of America by 
Chinese Buddhist Priests, in the Fifth Century," by 
Charles G. Leland. This work recognizes, on page 
32, the claims of the Norsemen, but presents an older 
claim by the Chinese, showing that a Buddhist monk 
or missionary, named Hoei-shin, returned in the year 
499 A.D. from a long journey to the East. The 
country that Hoei-shin visited is claimed to be Old 
and New Mexico, and was called by him Fusang. 
The monk had found in this new and strange country 



prefacp: to the new edition. y 

an abundance of the maguey plant, or great cactus, 
which he called fusang, after a Chinese plant slightly 
resembling it, and this name (Fusang) he applied to 
the country itself. Leland's book is well worth 
reading. 

(/) In July, 1875, was held, in Nancy, France, 
the first meeting of the Congres International des 
Americanistes, a society which has been organized for 
the sole purpose of thoroughly investigating the pre- 
Columbian history of the American continent. The 
compte rendu of this session has been published in 
two large octavo volumes, by Maisonneuve et Cie., 
Paris. In the first volume will be found many valua- 
ble papers on the discovery of America by the Pheni- 
cians, Chinese, Irish, l^orsemen, Welsh ; and on the 
relation of these discoveries to the transatlantic voy- 
ages by Columbus. The second meeting of this society 
will be held, September, 1877, in Luxembourg, and 
there can be no doubt that it will in course of time 
produce a unique library of papers and discussions on 
pre-Columbian America. We are glad to notice that 
the savans who assembled in Nancy in 1875 fully 
recognized the claims of the Norsemen.* 

*To this list might be added Bayard Taylor's "Egypt and Iceland;" 
Caton's "Summer in Norway;" Griffin's "My Danish Days;" and John 
S. C. Abbott's "Christopher Columbus;" in all of which the Norse claims 
are vindicated. The last is in part a reply to the above-mentioned work of 
Aaron Goodrich. 



10 PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 

3. In 1876 appeared : 

(a) " An American in Iceland," by Samnel Knee- 
land. Its fourteenth chapter is devoted to a presenta- 
tion and discussion of the Norse discovery of America. 

(h) " America discovered by the Welsh," by Benja- 
min F. Bo wen (Lippincott, publisher). The voyages 
of the [N^orsemen, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, 
are set down, on page 23, as being too well authenti- 
cated to admit of any doubt, and the book gives an 
interesting and elaborate discussion of the Welsh dis- 
covery of America, in tlie year 1170, by Prince Madoc 
and his followers, in order, as the author says, ''to 
assign them their rightful place in American history." 
And, indeed, these various pre-Columbian discoverers 
are gradually receiving recognition in American his- 
tory ! It used to be the custom to pass over these 
early visitors to our continent in utter silence or with 
a contemptuous fling at them, as though they were 
mere myths, created only for the purpose of tickling 
the vanity of the different nationalities. 

It gives us great pleasure to be able to state that 
none of the recent histories of the United States have 
neglected to call attention to the pre-Columbian dis- 
coverers. Mr. John Clark Ridpath whites the title- 
page of his work as follows : " A History of the 
United States of America, from the aboriginal times 



PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 11 

to the present day ; embracing an account of the Ab- 
origines; the Norsemen in the New World; the dis- 
coveries by the Spaniards, English, and French, etc. 
etc. ; " and part II of the work begins with a detailed 
account of the Norse discoveries. 

In William Cullen Bryant's large history of the 
United States, now being published, we find the fol- 
lowing very interesting title-page: "A Popular History 
of the United States, from the first discovery of the 
Western Hemisphere by the Northmen to the end of 
the First Century of the Union of the States ; " and a 
large portion of the first volume of that great work is 
devoted to an elaborate account of the discovery of 
the American continent by the Norsemen, Irish, 
Welsh, etc. This is right, and therefore we approve 
it and are glad of it. "Truth crushed to earth 
will rise again," and in the growing recognition of 
the claims of the Norsemen to the honor of having 
discovered America in the tenth century is a beautiful 
illustration of the tr^ith contained in this sentence. 

While the various writers here alluded to freely 
admit the fact that the Norsemen, as well as others, 
discovered and explored parts of America long before 
Columbus, they are unwilling to believe that there is 
any historical connection between the discovery of the 
Norsemen and that of Columbus ; or, in other words. 



12 PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 

that Columbus profited in any way by the J^orsemen's 
knowledge of America. 

This is all the more singular, since none of them 
even try to deny the statement made by Fernando 
Columbo," his son, that he (Christopher Columbus) 
not only spent some time in Iceland, in 1477, but 
sailed three hundred miles beyond, which must have 
brought him nearly within sight of Greenland. We 
are informed that he was an earnest student and the 
best geographer and map-maker of his day. He 
was a diligent reader of Aristotle, Seneca and Strabo. 
Why not also of Adam of Bremen, who in his vol- 
ume, published in the year 1076, gave an accurate 
and well authenticated account of Yinland (New 
England) ? 

Is it not fair to say that Columbus must have read 
Adam of Bremen's book, and that he in 1477 went to 
explore and reconnoitre the old northern route by way 
of Iceland, Greenland, Markland and Helluland to 
Yinland ? We must insist that it is, to say the least, 
highly probable that he had in some way obtained 
knowledge of the discoveries of the Norsemen in the 
western ocean, and that he thought their Yinland to 

The statement is found in Chapter iv of the biography, which the son 
of Christopher Columbus. Fernando, wrote of his father, and which was 
published in Ve-nice in 1571. Its title is, ''Vita dell' admiraglio Chrisophoro 
Columbo." 



PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 13 

be the eastern shores of Asia. But no matter what 
induced him to go to Iceland." We know positively 
that he went there and even three hundred miles 
beyond it. The last Norse voyage to America of 
which we have any account was in the year 1347, and 
is it possible, we ask, that Columbus could visit Ice- 
land only 130 years later and learn nothing of the 
famous Yinland the Good ? 

We firmly believe in evolution so far as the dis- 
covery of America is concerned. We believe that the 
voyages of the Phenicians and of the Greek Pytheas 
were the germ that budded in the explorations of Irish 
Welshmen and Norsemen, and culminated in the dis- 
covery of America by Columbus. Columbus added 
the last link of the golden chain that was to unite the 
two continents. We believe that Columbus was a 
scholar, who industriously studied all books and manu- 
scripts that contained any information about voyages 
and discoveries ; that his searching mind sought out the 
writings of Adam of Bremen, that well-known historian 
who in the most unmistakable and emphatic language 
speaks of the Norse discovery of Yinland; that the 

* The famous geographer Malte-Brun suggests, in his Histoire de la 
Ge'ographie, ii, pp. 395, 499, that Cohimbus, when in Italy, had heard of 
the Norse discoveries beyond Iceland, for Rome was then the world's center, 
and all information of importance was sent there; and we know that Pope 
Paschal II appointed Erik Upsi Bishop of Vinland in the year 1112, and 
that Erik Upsi went personally to Vinland in 1121. 



14 PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 

information thus gathered induced him to make his 
voyage to Iceland. And thus we are able to explain 
the firm conviction that Columbus invariably ex- 
pressed in reference to land in the west ; thus we can 
account for the absolute certainty and singular firm- 
ness with which he talked of land across the ocean ; 
and thus we can account for his accurate knowledge of 
the breadth of the ocean. 

Many have objected that Columbus never enter- 
tained an idea of discovering a nev3 worlds but that he 
was in search of a western route to India. What of it? 
Why could not Columbus have supposed that the 
Yinland, which the Norsemen had found, and which 
Adam of Bremen w^rote about, was the very India to 
which he wanted to find a western route? Grant that 
all he wanted to know was, whether land could be 
found by sailing westward, — if he ever had such an 
opinion he must certainly have gotten it confirmed in 
Iceland. The l^orsemen bad not discovered the Pa- 
cific Ocean, and Columbus might well have believed 
that the ITorsemen had discovered India. 

If Columbus had learned of Yinland when he was 
in Iceland, why did he not sail farther north instead 
of going so far to the south that he reached the West 
India Islands instead of New England? This question 
has frequently been urged, and we reply, that the 



PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 15 

Icelanders must have told him, as tliej state in 
their Sagas, that far to the south of Vinland was 
Irland-it-Mikla, or Great Ireland ; that this Great Ire- 
land extended certainly as far south as the present 
Florida, and hence his shortest and most pleasant 
route would be to sail about due- west from Spain. 
Granting that America had not yet been found, any 
South European navigator, who had examined the Old 
Norse Sagas, and wanted to re-discover the lands there- 
in described, would feel sure of reaching Irland-it-Mikla 
by taking about the same course as did Columbus. 

In presenting these arguments, we repeat a state- 
ment that we have made elsewhere, that we are not 
detracting in any way from the great and well-de- 
served fame of Columbus. We are rather vindicat- 
ing him as a man of thorough scholarship, great 
research, good judgment, in short a man of extraor- 
dinary ability, by showing that his discovery of 
America was the fruit of patient and persevering 
study of all the geographical information within his 
reach, and not a matter of chance, baseless specula- 
tion, or as some would like to have it, inspiration. 

We believe he examined carefully the traditions 
found in Plato of an island Atlantis, that had been 
swallowed up by the waves; we believe he read 
what Dioduros says about Phenician merchants who 



16 PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 

were driven by storms out of their course and found 
a fertile land to the west of Africa; we believe he 
had read Adam of Bremen, and that he could not 
rest satisfied, before he had undertaken that perilous 
voyage to Iceland and heard from the very lips of 
the Norsemen themselves, the sagas relating to Yin- 
land and Great Ireland. 

We neglected to mention in our first edition 
the two remarkable visitors to America, — Are Mar- 
son and Bjorn, the Champion of Breidavik; and we 
gave Gudleif Gudlaugson but a passing notice, for the 
reason that their voyages are in no really historical 
connection with the voyages of Leif and Thorvald 
Erikson and Thorfinn Karlsefne. The Landnamabok 
and Eyrbyggja Sagas give elaborate accounts of these 
adventurers, the substance of which is as follows : 

The powerful chieftain. Are Marson, of Reykjanes, 
in Iceland, was, in the year 983, driven to Great 
Ireland (the country around the Chesapeake Bay) by 
storms, and was there baptized. The first author of 
this account was his contemporary, Rafn, surnamed 
the Limerick-trader, he having long resided in Lim- 
erick, in Ireland. The illustrious Icelandic sage. Are 
Erode, the first compiler of Landnama, who was him- 
self a descendant in the fourth degree from Are Mar- 
son, states on this subject that his uncle, Thorkel 



PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 17 

GelJerson, (whose testimony he on another occasion 
declares to be worthy of all credit,) had been informed 
by Icelanders, who had their information from Thorhnn 
Signrdson, jarl of Orkney, that Are had been recog- 
nized in Great Ireland, and could not get away from 
there, but was there held in great respect. This state- 
ment therefore shows that in those times (A. D. 983) 
there was an occasional intercourse between the west- 
ern part of Europe (the Orkneys and Ireland) and the 
Great Ireland or Whiteman's Land of America. The 
Saga (Landnamabok, Landtaking Book, Domesday 
Book) expressly states that Great Ireland lies to the 
west, in the sea, near to Yinland the Good, YI days' 
sailing west from Ireland ; and Professor Kafn was of 
the opinion that the figures YI have arisen through 
some mistake or carelessness of the transcriber of the 
original manuscript, which is now lost, and were er- 
roneously written for XX, XI, or perhaps XY, which 
would better correspond with the distance. The mis- 
take might easily have been caused by a blot or defect 
in the manuscript. 

It must have been in this same Great Ireland that 
Bjorn Asbrandson, surnamed the Champion of Breid- 
avik, spent the latter part of his life. He had been 
adopted into the celebrated band of Jomsborg war- 
riors, that Dr. G. W. Dasent describes in his " Yikins^s 



18 PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 

of the Baltic," under Palnatoke, and took part with 
them in the battle of Fyrisval, in Sweden. His illicit 
amatory connection w^ith Thurid of Froda (Kiver Frod) 
in Iceland, a sister of the powerful Snorre Gode, drew 
upon him the enmity and persecution of the latter, in 
consequence of which he found himself obliged to quit 
the country for ever, and in the year 999 he set sail 
from Iceland with a northeast wind. 

Gudleif Gudlaugson, brother of Thoriinn, the an- 
cestor of the celebrated historian, Snorre Sturleson, 
had, as related in Chapter I of this volume, made a 
trading voyage to Dublin, in Ireland ; but when he 
left that place again, with the intention of sailing 
round Ireland and retnrning to Iceland, he met with 
long-continuing northeasterly winds, which drove him 
far to the southwest in the ocean, and late in the 
summer he and his company came at last to an ex- 
tensive country, but they knew not what country it 
was. On their landing, a crowd of the natives, several 
hundreds in number, came against them, and laid 
hands on them, and bound them. They did not know 
anybody in the crowd, but it seemed to them that 
their language resembled Irish. The natives now took 
counsel whether they should kill the strangers or make 
slaves of them. While they were deliberating, a large 
company approached, displaying a banner, close to 



PKEFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 19 

which rode a man of distinguished appearance, who 
was far advanced in years, and had gray hair. The 
matter under deliberation was referred to his decision. 
He was the above-named Bjorn Asbrandson. He 
caused Gudleif to be brought before him, and, address- 
ing him in the Norse language, he asked him whence 
he came. On his replying that he was an Icelandei', 
Bjorn made many inquiries about his acquaintance in 
Iceland, particularly about his beloved Thnrid of Frod 
Kiver, and her son Kjartan, supposed to be his own 
son, and who at that time was the proprietor of the 
estate of Frod Eiver. In the meantime, the natives 
becoming impatient and demanding a decision, Bjorn 
selected twelve of his company as counselors, and took 
them aside with him, and some time afterward he 
went toward Gudleif and his companions and told 
them that the natives had left the , matter to his de- 
cision. He thereupon gave them their liberty, and 
advised them, although the summer was already far 
advanced, to depart immediately, because the natives 
were not to be depended on, and were difficult to deal 
with, and, moreover, conceived that an infringement 
on their laws had been committed to their disadvan- 
tage. He gave them a gold ring for Tliurid and a 
sword for Kjartan, and told them to charge his friends 
and relations not to come over to him, as he had now 



20 PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 

become old, and might daily expect that old age would 
get the better of him ; that the country was large, 
having but few harbors, and that strangers must every- 
where expect a hostile reception. Gudleif and his 
company accordingly set sail again, and found their 
way back to Dublin, where they spent the winter; but 
the next summer they repaired to Iceland, and de- 
livered the presents, and everybody was convinced 
that it was really Bjorn Asbrandson, the Champion of 
Breidavik, that they had met with in that far-off 
country. 

An American poet, G(eorge) E. O(tis), published 
in 1874, in Boston, a very pleasant poem based on the 
saga narrative of Bjorn Asbrandson. The name of the 
poem is " Thurid." The above narrative, taken from 
"Antiquitates American?e," is merely a brief abstract 
of the sagas which, in the case of Bjorn, as the reader 
may easily imagine, is brimful of dramatic and poetic 
interest. The Landnamabok and the Eyrbyggja Saga 
are of vital importance to every one who would make 
a study of the discovery of America by the Irish, but 
as we expect at some future day to be able to give 
to the public a complete translation of all the old 
J^orse sagas treating of voyages to the western con- 
tinent, we must pass on to another subject. 

Anent the Dighton Bock, we have had some corre- 



PKEFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 21 

spondence with Elisha Slade, Esq., of Somerset, Bristol 

county, Massacluisetts. Before giving his letters we 

will say, in general, that until sufficient proof of 

some other origin of the Newport Tower and the 

Dighton Rock inscriptions are given, we shall persist 

in claiming them as relics of the l^orsemen.'-^ Now 

please read the following letters: 

Somerset, Bristol County, Massachusetts, 
December 17, 1875. 

Dear Sir, — I take pleasure in forwarding to your 
address a stereoscopic view of the celebrated Dighton 
Rock, situated in Taunton River, at low water mark, 
three miles north of Somerset, on the eastern bank 
of the river. As you well know, the rock has been 
the subject of much learned discussion at various 
times since the landing of the Pilgrims. 

Geologically, Dighton Rock is a silicious sand- 
stone of the upper Silurian period, and, I think, 
belongs to the Helderberg group, stratified as you 
see in the picture, the stratifications at right angles 
to the face and parallel to the surface ; was probably 
deposited in still water; is a boulder and not in situ. 

I have carefully measured the rock, and the fol- 
lowing is the result of my work: 

The face of the rock, on which are the inscriptions, 

* We are fully aware that the Copenhagen runologists do not regard the 
Dighton Rock Inscription as a work of the Norsemen. But in the first place 
the writing is not claimed to be runic, but Roman. Prof. Rafn himself did 
not try to show more than two or three runic letters in it. And in the second 
place we are not aware that either Stephens or Worsaae have ever made any 
careful examination of the inscription. When they have made a thorough 
study of it and reported, we are willing to accept their decision on the subject. 



22 PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 

has an an»le of 47° to the horizon, and the surface 
(not seen in the picture) as it slopes toward the shore 
is in the mean 25° to the horizon. 

The mean height of the rock on its face above 
the ground is 1,293 meters. 

Its mean length on its surface is 1,768 meters. 

Its mean width is 3,381: meters. 

Its contents above ground is 3,871 cubic meters. 

Its weight is 9,071,023 kilogrammes. 

In viewing the rock, you are looking in a south- 
easterly direction, or, perliaps, more nearly SS.E. by 
the compass, but the magnetic needle here has a 
variation of 11° 03' west of north. 

The rock is almost covered wnth water at higli 
tide, and can only be seen to advantage at low tide. 

The inscriptions on the rock are from one-eighth 
to three-eighths of an inch deep. At the time it 
was photographed I made nearly all of the chalk 
marks myself, and no chalking ivas "tnade where the 
cmtting in the rock was not plainly visihle to the eye, 
and many inarlcings partly obscnre loere not touched, 
thus giving the roch the henefit of all possible dovM. 

Captain A. M. Harrison, in charge of the United 
States Coast Survey, engaged in work on Taunton 
River, was present when the photograph was taken, 
and he is engaged upon a history of the Norsemen's 
discovery of America, in connection with Dighton 
Rock, by request of the United States government. 
His report, when completed, will be a valuable 
work. I am, my dear sir, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, Elisha Slade. 



PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 23 

It has so frequently been claimed that the inscrip- 
tions on Dighton Rock are nothing but " Indian 
scrawls," hence we wrote to Mr. Slade, asking him 
whether they could, in his opinion, have been made 
with stone implements. Here is his answer: 

Somerset, Bristol County, Massachusetts, 
March 13, 1876. 
Dear Sir,— You ask my opinion as to the instru- 
ments used in cutting the inscriptions on Dighton 
Rock. I think they were iron implements, and 
that they were in the hands of a skilled mechanic — 
a Norseman worthy of the name. I do not know 
that my opinion on this question is of any conse- 
quence, still I have seen work undoubtedly performed 
by an aboriginal American with flint and stone tools, 
but the characters were not nicely edged, as these 
are. I cannot believe they were made by the lazy 
Indian of Schoolcraft. 

I have a decided interest in the Norsemen's visit 
to New England, for Thorfinn must have been well 
acquainted with Somerset, my native town. He 
must have seen Taunton River as I see it, with 
Mount Hope and Narragansett bay, and seen the 
same sun rise over the same hills and set behind 
the same ridge 865 years ago. It is not impossible 
that Snorre was born in Somerset. 

Ever truly yours, 

Elisha Slade. 



24 PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 

In reference to this curious rock we will now 
only refer the reader to Chapter XIY of this book. 

From Joseph Story Fay, Esq., of Wood's Holl, 
Massachusetts, we have received the following very 
interesting paper on "The Track of the Norsemen," 
which we recommend to the careful perusal of our 
readers. Before presenting it, however, w^e will re- 
mark that the name Hope is found in Thorfinn Karl- 
•sefne's Saga, w^h ere w^e read: "Karlsefne sailed with 
his people into the mouth of the river (Taunton 
River), and they called the place Hop (Mount 
Hope).'' Hope is from the Icelandic hoiJa, to recede, 
and signifies a bay or the mouth of a river. The 
description in the saga corresponds exactly with the 
present situation of Mount Hope Ba3^ Here is Mr. 
Fay's paper. (We publish it by permission of the 
author.) 

It is now well established that in the tenth cent- 
ury the Norsemen visited this country, and coasting 
down from Greenland, passed along Cape Cod, through 
Vineyard Sound to Narragansett Bay, where it is be- 
lieved they settled. In the neighborhood of Assonet 
and Dighton, inscriptions upon the rocks have been 
found, and traditions exist that there were others, 
which have been destroyed. The name of Mount 
Hope is supposed to have been given to the Indians 
by them, and it is a little curious that tliose antiquaries 



PEEFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 25 

who have tried to identity the names in Narragansett 
Bay with the Norsemen did not look elsewhere on 

their rente. 

The Rev. Isaac Taylor, the author of a work 
published by Macmillan & Co., of London, entitled 
"Words and Places," dilates upon the tenacity with 
which the names of places adhere to them, "throwing 
light upon history when other records are in doubt. 
He shows the progress and extent of the Celtic, »or- 
weo-ian and Saxon- migration over Europe, by the 
names and terminals which still exist over that conti- 
nent and even on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, 
and says, "the knowledge of the history and migra- 
tions of snch tribes must be recovered from the study 
of the names of the' places they once inhabited, but 
which now know them no more, from the names ot 
the hills which they fortified, of the rivers by which 
they dwelt, of the distant mountains upon which they 
o-azed " He says, " In the Shetlands, every local name 
without exception is Norwegian. The names of the 

farms end in seter or ster, and the hills are 

called hoy and holl;" and yet he also says, 

" the name of 'Greenland is the only one left to remind 
us of the Scandinavian settlements which were made 
in America in the tenth century." Would the author 
have made this exception to his axiom as to the dura- 
bility of names, had he remembered that the Norse- 
men called the southern coast of Massachusetts Vm- 
LAND, and then had seen that we still have " Martin s 
Martha's Vineyard ?" Had he sighted Cape Cod 



01 

2 



26 PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 

and entered Vineyard Sound as the IN^orsemen did, in 
rounding Monomoy Point, tlie southeast extremity of 
the cape, he would have seen on his right a high 
sandy hill, on or near which is the light-house, over- 
looking a land-locked anchorage on the inside called 
Powder Hole ; a score or more of miles farther along, 
across the sound, on his left, he would have seen the 
hills now called Oak Bluffs and the Highlands, and 
under their lee a deep bay and roadstead long known 
as Holmes' Hole, unfortunately changed to Vineyard 
Haven ; crossing over to the mainland again, a little 
farther west, he would have come to the bold but 
prettily rounded hills forming the southwestern ex- 
tremity of the cape, and behind them the sheltered 
and picturesque harbor of Wood's Hole. 

Proceeding thence toward JN^arragansett Bay, 
along the south coast of Naushon, prominent hills on 
the west end of that island slope down to a roadstead 
for small craft, and a passage through to Buzzard's 
Bay, called Robinson's Hole ; the next island is 
Basque ; and between its high hills and those of 
]Nashawena is a passage called Quick's Hole. 'Now 
these several localities are unlike each other except 
that all have hills in their vicinity, serving as distin- 
guishing landmarks. And why is not the word hole 
as applied to them a corruption of the IS^orwegian 
word holl, meaning hill ? The descriptive term hole 
is not applicable to any of them, but the word holl is 
to the adjacent hills, while there is little else in com- 
mon between them. The localities now called Quick's 



PKEFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 27 

and Eobinson's Hole are passages between Elizabeth 
Islands; Wood's Hole is a passage and a harbor; 
Holmes' Hole, now known as Vineyard Haven, is a 
deep bay or anchorage ; and Powder Hole was for- 
merly a capacious roadstead, now nearly tilled w^ith 
sand. 

It may seem to militate with the theory advanced, 
that south of Powder Hole or Monomoy Point is a 
locality called on the chart Butler's Hole, w^iich lies 
in the course from Handkerchief Shoal to Pollock 
Rip, where there is now not only no hill but no land. 
But it is to be considered that almost within the 
memory of man there was land in that vicinity, which 
has been washed away by the same strong and eccen- 
tric current that has nearly filled up Powder Hole 
harbor and made it a sand-flat, and which still casts 
up on the shore large roots and remains of trees. 
With this in mind it is not wild to suppose that 
Butler's Hole marks a spot w^here once was an island 
with a prominent hill, w^iich the sea kings called a 
holl, and w^iich has succumbed to the powerful abra- 
sion of the tides which have moved Pollock Pip many 
yards to the eastward, and which every year make and 
unmake shoals in the vicinity of Nantucket and Cape 
Cod. 

It would seem a matter of course that the Norse- 
men, after their long and perhaps rough voyages, 
when once arrived in the sheltered waters and harbors 
of Vineyard Sound should have become familiar with 
them, and should have lingered there to recruit and 



28 PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 

relit, before proceeding westward ; or on their return, 
to have waited there to gather up resources before 
venturing out on the open ocean. Indeed, it is re- 
corded in their sagas that they brought off boat loads 
of grapes from those pleasant shores. What more 
probable than that they cultivated friendly relations 
with the natives, and in coming to an understanding 
with them on subjects in common, should have told 
them the N^orwegian terms for the hills and headlands 
of their coast, and that the Indians, in the paucity of 
their own language, should have adopted the appella- 
tive holl, which they were told signified hill, so impor- 
tant as a landmark to these wandering sea kings! 
Why may not the ]S"orsemen have called them so, 
until the natives adopted the same title, and handed it 
down to the English explorers under Bartholomew 
Gosnold, who gave their own patronymics to those 
several hoUs, or holes, as now called ? The statement 
of " the oldest inhabitant " of Wood's Hole, on being 
asked where the word hole came from, is, that he 
" always understood that it came from the Indians." 

There being no harbor on the shores of Martha's 
Vineyard island west of Holmes' Hole, the voyagers 
would naturally follow the north shore of the sound 
and become familiar with the Elizabeth Islands, and 
be more likely to give names to the localities on that 
side than on the other. Between Wood's Hole and 
Holmes' Hole the sound is narrowest, and they would 
be apt to frequent either harbor as the winds and tide 
might make it safe or convenient for them. 



PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 29 

It seems to confirm the views here advanced tliat 
in no otiier part of this continent or of the world, 
where tlie English have settled, is to be commonly 
found the local name of hole, and yet here in a dis- 
tance of sixty miles, the thoroughfare of these bold 
navigators, there are no less than five such still extant. 
How can it be explained except because it is " the 
track of the Norsemen"? It is not natural or proba- 
ble, with their imperfect means of navigation, that 
they should have passed from Greenland to Narragan- 
sett Bay, leaving distinct traces in each, and yet to 
have ignored the whole intervening space, and not to 
have lingered awhile on the shores where they found 
grapes by the boat load, and which must have been as 
fair and pleasant in those days as they are now. It is 
to be hoped that at least our people will not be in 
haste to wipe out the local names of Yineyard Sound, 
when it is so likely that they are the oldest on the 
continent, and give to Massachusetts a priority of 
discovery and settlement over her sister States. Only 
let us correct the spelling, and give proper significance 
to them by calling the places now named Hole by the 
appropriate title of Holl. 

Before closing this preface we wish to add a few 
facts about the plans of the distinguished violinist 
Ole Bull in reference to a monument in honor of 
the Norse discoverers of .America. 

At the close of a complimentary reception given 
to the distinguished artist in the Music Hall, Boston, 



30 PKEFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 

Massachusetts, on the 8th of December, 1876, the 
Rev. Edward Everett Hale rose in his place on the 
floor and said" he supposed it was known to every 
person present that the distinguished artist had spent 
almost the whole of his active life in knotting: those 
ties which connected his country with ours. It w^as 
hoped that in some future time there would be 
erected a physical memorial to the early discoverers 
of whom he liad spoken. It was the wish of those 
about him [Mr. Hale], at w^hose request he spoke, 
that Boston should not be behind in any expression 
of gratitude to him [Ole Bull] for his work, as 
well as in expressing interest in our l^orse ancestors. 
He was sure he expressed the sentiment, not only of 
the audience, but of all New England, when he 
spoke of the interest with which he regarded his 
countrymen, whom they regarded as almost theirs. 
He remembered, although it was nearly forty years 
ago, when much such an audience as he saw 
about him cheered and applauded Edward Everett, 
when the early discoveries had just been made, and 
when in one of the last of his public poems he 
expressed the wish that the great discoveries of Thor- 
vald might be commemorated by Thorvald's great 
descendant, the Northern artist Thorwaldsen. The 

*From report in Boston daily ••Advertiser." 



PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 31 

last words of tliat poem as they died upon the ear 
were : 

Thorvald shall live for aye in Tliorwaldsen. 

He [the speaker] thought it was a misfortune for 
New England that the great Northern artist died 
before he could accomplish this wish. But New 
Englanders had never forgotten it, and had never 
forgotten their Norse ancestors. It was an enter- 
prise which ought to engage Massachusetts men — 
the preservation of a plijsical memorial of Thorvald, 
Leif and Thorfinn ; and he suggested that the com- 
mittee which had arranged the meeting should be- 
come a committee of New England, in conjunction 
with Mr. Appleton, to take this matter in special 
charge. Mr. Hale put a motion to this effect, and 
it ^vas carried, and the committee constituted. 

The committee of the Norsemen Memorial includes 
the highest civic officers of Boston and Massachusetts, 
and so many men renowned throughout the world in 
science, in letters, and in art, that we cannot refrain 
from ornamenting our pages with their names. They 
are, Thomas G. iVppleton, Alexander H. Rice, Sam- 
uel C. Cobb, Wm. Gaston, Otis Norcross, Frederic 
W. Lincoln, Marshall P. Wilder, H. W. Paine, Henry 
A. Whitney, Franklin Haven, Geo. C. Richardson, 



32 PKEFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 

Alpbeus Hardy, Jos. B. Glover, John W. Candler, 
E. H. Sampson, James R. Osgood, Oliver Ditson, 
Jas. H. Danforth, Curtis Guild, W. W. Clapp, Jerome 
Jones, George O. Carpenter, Chas. W. Wilder, Dexter 
Smith, Wm. Emerson Baker, James W. Bartlett, Jos. 
W. Bobbins, Ole Bull, John G. Whittier, E. N. Hors- 
ford, O. W. Holmes, J. B. Lowell, James T. Fields, 
Chas. W. Eliot, G. W. Blagden, Edward E. Hale, 
B. C. Waterston, William B. Bogers, John D. Bnn- 
Ivle, Ezra Farnswortli, Charles M. Clapp, Joseph Bur- 
nett, John P. Spaulding, Henry B. Beed, W. A. 
Simmons, Wm. H. Baldwin, Bercival L. Everett, A. 
B. Underwood, Thomas Sherwin, Benjamin Kimball, 
Moses H. Sargent, W. B. Sears, J. Watson Taylor, 
Francis L. Hills, secretary. 

This committee is. 

First, To take measures to erect a monument in 
honor of the Norsemen who first discovered the Con- 
tinent of America, about a.d. 1000. 

Second, For the protection of the Dighton Bock, 
now in Taunton Biver. 

The committee issued, January 12, 1877, a cir- 
cular, of which the following, relating to the Dighton 
Bock, is an extract : 

The origin of the inscriptions cut on this rock 
have been, for several centuries, the study of histo- 



PKEFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 33 

riaiis. Professor Rafn, and others, of the Royal 
Society of Northern Antiquaries, of Copenhagen, 
Denmark, were so decided in their belief that the 
Dighton Rock was inscribed by the Norsemen, that 
Ole Bull requested JSTeils Arnzen to purchase it for 
that society, of which the King of Denmark is the 
president. This committee regard the Dighton Rock, 
whatever its origin, as a valuable historic relic of 
American antiquity, and have taken measures to 
obtain the title to it, in order to protect and remove 
it to Boston. They invite the deductions of all 
historic researchers as to the authenticity of these 
inscriptions.* 

Thus it will be seen that the Boston committee 
will provide for a monument in honor of the Norse 
discoverers and for the preservation of Dighton Rock, 
and we are informed that a handsome sum of money 
has already been raised for these purposes. At all 
events, it is now certain that Ole Bull's long cher- 
ished plans will be realized ; and the people of Boston 
are doing themselves and their great city great credit 
in reviving and perpetuating the memory of those 

*An impression of the Dighton Rock inscriptions, taken in 1790, is 
preserved in Harvard University. Drawings made in 1680 can be found in 
the '■'Antiguitates Americanoe.'''' This work records the inscriptions as Norse, 
and describes it as conforming to Icelandic Sagas account of " Thorfinn's 
Expedition to Vinland" (Massachusetts). 

[Copies of the photograph of Dighton Rock, taken in 1876 by order 
of the special agent of the United States government, may be obtained at 
the office of the secretary of the committee, No. 13 West street, Boston.] 



34 PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 

who first of all Christians planted their feet on 
the soil of Massachusetts, and built the first cabins 
(Leif's Booths) in New England. 

In sending out this second edition of our book 
we may be pardoned for again pleading the cause 
of the Norsemen and hoping that the time may 
soon come when the names of Leif Erikson, Bjarne 
Herjulfson, Thorvald Erikson (who, by the way, has 
recently been immortalized in Longfellow's " Skele- 
ton in Armor"), Thorfinn Karlsefne, Gudrid, Erik 
Upsi, Are Marson, Bjorn Asbrandson (the champion 
of Breidavdk) and Gudleif Gudlaugson shall have 
become household words in every house and hamlet 
in these United States. Let every child learn the 
stories about the Norse discoverers of Yinland the 
Good. 

University of Wisconsin, 

Madison, Wis., April 3, 1877. 



CHAPTER I 



THE NORSEMEN, AND OTHER PEOPLES, INTERESTED 
IN THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

rriHE object of the following pages is to present 
-■- the reader with a brief account of the discovery 
of early voyages to and settlements in the Western 
Continent by the N'orsenien, and to prove that Co- 
lumbus must have had knowledge of this discovery 
by the Norsemen before he started to iind America ; 
and the author will not be surprised, if, in these 
pages, he should happen to throw out some thoughts 
which will conflict with the reader's previously- 
formed convictions about matters and things gen- 
erally, and about historical facts especially. 

The interest manifested by the reader of history 
is always greater the nearer the history which he 
reads is connected with his own country or with 
his own ancestors. 

The American student, on the one hand, loves 
to dwell upon the pages of American history. He 



3t) AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

admires the resolntioii, the fortitude and persever- 
ance of the Pilgrim Fathers as tiiey passed through 
their varied scenes of hardship and adversity when 
they made their first settlement upon our New 
England shores ; and his whole soul is filled with 
transporting emotions of delight or sympathy as he 
reads the thrilling incidents of the sufferings and 
the victories of his countrymen who fought for his 
as well as for their own freedom during the Revolu- 
tionary war. 

The Norse student, on the other hand, takes 
special pleasure in perusing the old Sagas and Ed- 
das, and following the Yikings on their daring but 
victorious expeditions through European waters ; and 
he draws inspiration from those beautiful and poet- 
ical ancient myths and stories about Odin, Thor, 
Baldur, Loke, the Giant Ymer, Ragnarok, Yg- 
drasil, and that innumerable host of godlike heroes 
that illuminate the pages of his people's ancient 
history, and glitter like brilliant diamonds in the 
dust and darkness of bygone ages. 

The subject to which your attention is invited, 
the Discovert/ of America^ is, if properly presented, 
of equal interest to Americans and Norsemen. For 
those who are born and brought up on the fertile 
soil of Columbia, under the shady branches of the 



noble tree of American liberty, where the banner 
of progress and education is unfurled to the breeze, 
must naturally feel a deep interest in whatever 
facts may be presented in relation to the first dis- 
covery and early settlement of this their native land ; 
while those who first saw the sunlight beaming 
among the rugged, snow-capped mountains of old 
Norway, and can still feel any of the heroic blood 
of their dauntless forefathers course its way through 
their veins, must, as a matter of course, feel an 
equally deep interest in learning that their own 
ancestors, the intrepid Norsemen, were the first pale- 
faced men who planted their feet on this gem of the 
ocean, and an interest, too, I dare say, in having 
the claims of their native country to this honor 
vindicated. 

The subject is not without special interest to the 
Germans^ as it w^ill appear in the course of this 
sketch that a German,^ who accompanied the Norse- 
men on their first expedition to this Western World, 
is intimately connected with the first name of this 
country ; and there is no doubt that a German, f 
through his writings about the Norsemen, was the 
means of bringing to Columbus valuable information 
about America. 

The Welsh also have an interest in this subject; 

* Tj'rker. t Adam of Bremen. 



38 AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

for it is generally believed, and not without reason, 
that their ancestors, under the leadership of Madoc, 
made a settlement in this country about the year 
1170 ; thus, although they were 170 years later 
than the Norsemen in making the discovery, they 
were still 322 years ahead of Columbus, and Norse- 
men, therefore, claim in this question, Welshmen's 
sympathies against Columbus. 

We might enlist the interest of Irishmen, too, in 
the presentation of this subject ; for, in the year 
1029, (according to an account in the Eyrbyggja 
Saga, Chapter 64,) a Norse navigator, by name 
GuDLEiF GuDLAUGsoN, Undertook a voyage to Dub- 
lin, and on leaving Ireland again he intended to 
sail to Iceland ; but he met with northeast winds 
and was driven far to the west and southwest in 
the sea, where no land was to be seen. It was 
already late in the summer, and Gudleif, with his 
party, made many prayers that they might escape 
from the sea. And it came to pass, says the Saga, 
that they saw land, but they knew not what land 
it was. Then they resolved to sail to the land, for 
they were weary with contending longer with the 
violence of the sea. They found there a good har- 
bor, and w^hen they had been a short time on shore, 
there came some people to them. They knew none 



AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY C0LUMBU8. 39 

of the people, but it " rather appeared to them that 
they sjpoke Irish^ 

This portion of America, supposed to be situated 
south of the Chesapeake Bay, including North and 
South Carolina, Georgia, and East Florida, is in 
the Saga of Thorfinn Karlsefne, chapter 13, called 
" Irland-it-MiMa^^ that is. Great Ireland. It is 
claimed that the name. Great Ireland^ arose from 
the fact that the country had been colonized, long 
before Giidlaugson^ s visit, by the Irish, and that, 
they coming from their own green island to a vast 
continent possessing many of the fertile qualities of 
their own native soil, the appellation was natural and 
appropriate. There is nothing improbable in this 
conclusion ; for the Irish, who visited and inhabited 
Iceland toward the close of the eighth century, to 
accomplish which they had to traverse a stormy ocean 
to the extent of eight hundred miles — who, as early 
as 725, were found upon the Faroe Isles — and whose 
voyages between Ireland and Iceland, in the tenth 
century, were of ordinary occurrence — a people so 
familiar with the sea were certainly capable of making 
a voyage across the Atlantic ocean. 

I cannot here enter upon any further discussion 
of the claims of the Irish, but you observe that this 
subject of discovering America cannot be treated 



40 AMERICA NOT DISCOVEKED BY COLUMBUS. 

exhaustively without bringing back to tiie mind 

fond recollections of the Emerald Isle, which was 

once the School of Western Europe, and her brave 

sons 

" Inclyta gens hominum, milite, pace, fide," 

as Bishop Donatus somewhere has it. 



CHAPTER II 



NORSE LITERATURE HAS BEEN NEGLECTED BY THE 
LEARNED MEN OF THE GREAT NATIONS. 

THNLTGHTENED men all over the world are 
watching, with astonishment and admiration, 
the New World, from which great revolutions have 
proceeded, and in which great problems in human 
government, human progress and enterprise, are yet 
to be worked out and demonstrated. 

People are everywhere eagerly observing ever>^ 
event that takes place in America, making it the 
subject of the most careful scrutiny, and the results, 
wonderful as they are, everywhere awaken the most 
intense interest. If you travel in England, in Ger- 
many, in Norway, or in any of the Nortli-European 
countries, it is interesting to observe how familiar 
the common people are with matters and things per- 
taining to America. Tliey not only know America 
better than they know their border countries, but 
there also are found not a few who keep tliemselves 
better posted on the affairs of America than on 
those of their own country. 



42 AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

Until recently, it has generally been supposed 
that America was wholly unknown to European na- 
tions previous to the time of Columbus; but investi- 
gations by learned men have made it certain, beyond 
the shadow of a doubt, that the Europeans did have 
knowledge of this country long before the time of 
Columbus, and it has even been claimed, on quite 
plausible grounds, that some of the nations living 
here at the time of Columbus' discovery of this con- 
tinent were descendants of Europeans. 

As yet but few scholars have turned their atten- 
tion to the ]^orth of Europe in relation to this 
subject, and hence the light which this extreme 
portion of the globe could give has hitherto been, 
in a great measure, neglected by the learned men 
of the great nations ; and yet the antiquities of the 
Korth furnish a series of incontestable evidence that 
the coast of Xorth America was discovered in the 
latter part of the tenth century, immediately after 
the discovery of Greenland by the Norsemen ; fur- 
thermore, that this same coast was visited repeatedly 
by the Norsemen in the eleventh century ; further- 
more, that it was visited by them in the twelfth 
century ; nay, also, that it was found again by them 
in the thirteenth century, and revisited in the four- 
teenth century. But even this is not all. These 



AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 43 

T^orthern antiquities also show that Christianity had 
been introduced in America, not only among the 
Norsemen, who formed a settlement here, but also 
among the aborigines, or native population, that the 
J^orsemen found here. 

The learned men of the North are not to blame 
that this matter has not previously received due 
attention, for Torf^eus published an account thereof 
as early as the year 1705, and besides him Suhm 
and ScHCENiNG and Lagerbring and Wormskjold 
and Schrceder, to say nothing of many others, 
have all presented the main facts in their historical 
works. But other nations paid no attention to all 
this. Not until 1837, when the celebrated Pro- 
fessor Rafn, through the laudable enterprise of the 
Royal Society of Northern Antiquities, published 
his learned," interesting and important work,* could 
scholars outside of Scandinavia be induced to examine 
the claims of the Norsemen. Professor Rafn suc- 
ceeded, and he has perhaps done more than any 
other one man to call the attention of other nations 
to the importance of studying the Old Norse lite- 
rature. Thus it is that scholars of other nations 
recently have begun to direct their attention to 
Northern Antiquities, Northern Languages and His- 

* Antiqiiitates Araericaiife. Hafnise, 18;37. 



44 AMERICA NOT DISCOVEKED BY COLUMBUS. 

toiy. Germany and England, and I would like to 
add America, are now beginning to realize how 
much valuable material is to be found in these 
sources for elucidating the histor}^ and institutions 
of other contemporary nations ; and especially do the 
early Sagas of the E"orth throw much important light 
on the character of English and German institutions 
during the middle ages. The English and Germans 
are translating the Sagas as fast as they can. Pro- 
fessors KoNRAD Maurer and Th. Moebius are doing 
excellent work at their respective Universities in 
Germany ; Oxford and Cambridge in England have 
each an Icelandic Professor, and several American 
Universities give instruction in the Northern lan- 
guages. 

It is indeed an encouraging fact that these great 
nations are gradually becoming conscious of the 
importance of studying the Northern languages and 
literature, and we may safely hope that the time is 
not far distant when the Norsemen will be recog- 
nized in their right social, political and literary 
character, and at the same time as navigators assume 
their true position in the pre-Columbian discovery 
of America. 



CHAPTER III. 



ANTIQUITY OF AMERICA. 

T3EF0EE the plains of Europe rose above the 
-^^^ primeval seas, the continent of America, accord- 
ing to Louis Agassiz, emerged from the watery 
waste that encircled the whole globe and became 
the scene of animal life. Hence the so-called New 
World is in reality the Old, and Agassiz gives 
abundant proof of its hoary age. 

But who is able even to conjecture at what 
period it became the abode of man? Down to the 
close of the tenth century its written history is 
vague and uncertain. We can find traces of a rude 
civilization that suggest a very high antiquity. We 
can show mounds, monuments, and inscriptions, that 
point to periods, the contemplation of which would 
make Chronos himself grow giddy ; yet among all 
these great and often impressive memorials there 
is no monument, mound, or inscription, that solves 
satisfactorily the mystery of their origin. There are 
but few traditions even to aid us in our researches. 



46 AMERICA ACT DI8C0VEKED BY COLUMBUS. 

and we can only infer that age after age nations 
and tribes have continued to rise into greatness 
and then decline and fall, and that barbarism and 
a rude culture have held alternate swaj.* 

* Compare De Costa, page 11. 



CHAPTER IV. 



PHENICIAN, GREEK, IRISH AND WELSH CLAIMS. 

XN early times the Atlantic Ocean, like all other 
-■- things without known bounds, was viewed by 
man with mixed feelings of fear and awe. It was 
usually called the Sea of Darkness. 

The Phenician, and especially Tykian voyages to 
the Western Continent, in early times, have been 
warmly advocated ; and it is more than probable that 
the original inhabitants of the American continent 
crossed the Atlantic instead of piercing the icy 
regions of the north and coming by the way of 
Behring's Strait. From the Canaries, which were 
discovered and colonized by the Phenicians, it is a 
short voyage to America, and the bold sailors of 
the Mediterranean, after touching at these islands, 
could easily and safely be wafted to the western 
shore. 

That the Greek philosopher, Pytheas, whose dis- 
coveries about the different length of the days in 
various climates appeared so astonishing to the other 



4:8 AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

philosophers of his age, traversed the Atlantic Ocean 
about 340 years before Christ, can scarcely be doubted. 
He certainly discovered Thule ^ (Iceland), and deter- 
mined its latitude, and we may at least say that by 
this discovery he opened the way to America for 
the Norsemen. 

Claims have been made, as I have already shown, 
both by the Irish and by the Welsh, that they 
crossed the Atlantic and found America before 
Columbus, but it is not my purpose to comment 
upon these claims in this short sketch. Much 
learned discussion has been devoted to the subject, 
but the early history of the American continent is 
still, to a great extent, veiled in mystery, and not 
until near the close of the tenth century of the 
present era can we point, with absolute certainty, 
to a genuine transatlantic voyage. 

* See Strabo's Geography, Book II, § 6. 



CHAPTER V, 



WHO WERE THE NORSEMEN? 

npHE first voyage to America, of which we have 
-^ any perfectly reliable account, was performed 
by the Norsemen. ^ 

But who were the Norsemen ? Permit me to 
answer this question briefly. 

The Norsemen were the descendants of a branch 
of the Teutonic race that, in early times, emigrated 
from Asia and traveled westward and northward, 
finally settling down in what is now the west cen- 
tral part of the kingdom of Norway. Their lan- 
guage was the Old Norse, which is still preserved 
and spoken in Iceland, and upon it are founded the 
modern Norse, Danish and Swedish languages. 

The ancient Norsemen were a bold and inde- 
pendent people. They were a free people. Their 
rulers were elected by the people in convention 
assembled, and all public matters of importance were 
decided in the assemblies, or open parliaments of 
the people. 

Abroad they became the most daring adven- 



50 AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

turers. They made themselves known in every 
part of the civilized world by their daring as sol- 
diers and navigators. They spread themselves along 
the shores of Europe, making conquests and plant- 
ing colonies. 

In their conquering expeditions they subdued a 
large portion of England, wrested Xormandy, the 
fairest province of France, from the French king, 
conquered a considerable portion of Belgium, and 
made extensive inroads into Spain. Under Robert 
Guiscard they made themselves masters of Sicily 
and lower Italy in the eleventh century, and main- 
tained their power there for a long time. During 
the Crusades they led the van of the chivalry of 
Europe in rescuing the Holy Sepulchre, and ruled 
over Antioch under Guiscard's son, Bohemund. They 
passed between the pillars of Hercules, they deso- 
lated the classic fields of Greece and penetrated the 
walls of Constantinople. 

Straying away into the distant easr, from where 
they originally came, w"e lind them laying the 
foundations of the Russian Empire, swinging their 
two-edged battle-axes in the streets of Constantino- 
ple, where they served as the leaders of the Greek 
Emperor's l)odv-guard, and the main support of his 
tottering throne. They carved their mystic runes 



AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 51 

upon the marble liou^ in the harbor of Athens 
in commemoration of their conquest of this city. 
The old Norse Yikings sailed up the rivers Khine, 
Schelde, the Seine and Loire, conquering Cologne 
and Aachen, where they turned the emperor's palace 
into a stable, filling the heart of even the great 
Charlemagne with dismay. 

The rulers of England are descendants of the 
ISTorsemen. Ganger Kolf, known in English history 
by tlie name Eollo, a son of Harald Haarfagr's 
friend, Kagnvald Morejarl, invaded France in the 
year 912 and took possession of Normandy ; and in 
1066, at the battle of Hastings, William the Con- 
queror, a great-grandson of Ganger Kolf, conquered 
England ; and it is proper to add, that from this con- 
quest the pride and glory of Great Britain descended. 
It is also a noticeable fact, that the most serious 
opposition that William the Conqueror met with 
came from colonists of his own race, who had set- 
tled in Northumbria. He wasted their lands with 
fire and sword, and drove them beyond the border: 
but still we find their energy, their perseverance 
and their speech existing in the north English and 
lowland Scotch dialects. 

* The marble lion upon which they carved their runes was afterward 
taken to Venice and erected at the entrance of the areenal, where it may 
be seen at the present time. 



CHAPTER VI, 



ICELAND. 



T3UT Europe did not set bounds to the voyages 
-'— ^ and enterprises of tlie Norsemen. In the year 
860 they discovered Iceland, and soon afterward (874) 
established upon this island a republic, which flour- 
ished four hundred years. The Icelandic republic 
furnishes the very best evidence of the independent 
spirit which characterized the Norsemen. 

Political circumstances in Norway urged many 
of the boldest and most independent people in the 
countr}^ to seek an asylum of freedom. Harald 
IIaarfagr {i. e. the Fair-haired) had determined to 
make himself monarch of all Norway. He was 
instigated to nnite Norway under his scepter by 
the ambition of the fair and proud Ragna Adils- 
DATTER (daughter), whom he loved and courted ; 
but she declared that the man she married would 
have to be king of all Norway. Harald accepted 
the conditions; and after twelve years' hard fight- 
ing, during which time he neither cut nor combed 



AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 53 

his hair once,* in the year 872, at the battle of 
Hafersfjord, Norway became united into one king- 
dom, instead of being divided into thirty-one small 
republics, as had been the case before that time. 

Harald had subdued or slain the numerous leaders, 
and had passed a law abolishing all freehold tenure 
of property,f usurping it for the crown. To this 
the proud freemen of Norway would not submit. 
Disdaining to yield their ancient independence and 
be degraded, they resolved to leave those lands and 
homes, w^hich they could now scarcely call their own, 
and set ont with their families and followers in quest 
of new seats. There were as great emigrations from 
Norway in those days as there are now. The Norse 
spirit of enterprise is as old as theii* history. 

Whither then should they go, was the question. 

Some went to the Hebrides, others to the Orkney 
Isles; some to the Shetland and Faroe Isles; many 
w^ent as Yikings to England, Scotland and France ; 
but by far the greater number went to the more 
distant and therefore more secure Iceland, w^hich 
had been discovered by the celebrated Norse Yiking 

* He made a pledge to Ragna that he would neither cut nor comb his 
hair until he had subjugated all Norway. 

t This so-called udal, [Icel. odal, Norse odel, allodium,] i. e. independent 
tenure of property, was given back to the Norsemen by King Hakon the 
Good in the year 935, and has never since been taken away from them. 



54 AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

Kaddodd in 860, and called by him Snowland; re- 
discovered by Gardar, of Swedish extraction, in 864, 
after whom it was called Gardar's Holm (island), 
and visited by two Norsemen, Ingolf and Leif 
(Hjorleifr) in 870, by whom it was called Iceland. 
This emigration from Norway to Iceland began in 
the year 874, now more than a thousand years ago ; 
and thus this strange island was peopled — and in a 
few years peopled to a surprising extent. It was not 
long before it had upw^ard of 50,000 inhabitants. 
You must bear in mind that this colonization was 
on an island in the cold North Sea, a little below 
the Arctic Circle. It was in a climate where grain 
refused to ripen, and where the people often were 
obliged to shake the snow off the frozen hay before 
they could carry it. Fishing, the main support of 
the people, was often obstructed by ice from the 
polar regions filling their harbors, and the whole 
island presented a most melancholy aspect of desola- 
tion. But still the people continued to flock thither 
and become attached to the soil. They were sur- 
rounded the whole 3^ear by dreary ice-mountains, the 
glare of volcanic flames, and the roaring of geysers 
or boiling springs. Still they loved this wild coun- 
try, because they were freej and through the long 
winters, when the sun nearly or entirely disappeared 



AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 55 

from above the liorizoii, and nothing but northern 
lights flickered over their lieads, they seemed onl}- 
the more thrown upon their intellectual resources, 
and passed the time in reciting the Eddas and Sagas 
of their ancestors. 

Perhaps I ought to beg your pardon for dwelling 
so long upon the subject of Iceland ; but my apol- 
ogy is that, in the first place, Iceland is of itself an 
exceedingly interesting country ; and, in the next 
place, it is really the Jihige upon which the door 
swings which opened America to Europe. This 
island had been visited by Pytheas 340 years before 
Christ ; and, according to the Irish monk Dicuilus, 
who W'l-ote a geography in the year 825, it had been 
visited by some Irish priests in the summer of 795.*^ 
It was the settlement of Iceland by the IN'orsemen, 
and the constant voyages between this island and 
Norway, that led to the discovery, first of Greenland 
and then of America; and it is due to the high 
intellectual standing and fine historical taste of the 
Icelanders that records of these voj^ages w^ere kept, 
first to instruct Columbus how to find America, and 
afterward to solve for us the mysteries concerning 
the discovery of this continent. 

Iceland is a small island, in the 65th deg. north 

*Vid. Bicnilus. De Mensura Orbis Terra;, ed. Latronne. p. 38. 



50 AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

latitude, of about 1,800 geographical square miles. 
Its valleys are almost without verdure, and its 
mountains without trees. Still, it contains, even at 
the present time, no less than 70,000 inhabitants, 
who live a peaceable and contented life, still cling- 
ing to their ancient language, and studying foreign 
languages, science, philosophy, and history, as we do 
w^ho live in milder and more favored climes. JSTow, 
as in olden times, the earth trembles in the throes 
of the earthquake, — the geysers still spout their 
scalding water, and the plain belches forth mud, — 
while the grand old jokul,^ Mount Hekla, clad in 
white robes of eternal snow, brandishes aloft its 
volcanic torch, as if threatening to set the very 
heavens on fire. 

For ages Iceland was destined to become the sanc- 
tuary and preserver of the grand old literature of the 
North. Paganism prevailed there more than a cen- 
tury after the island became inhabited ; the old tra- 
ditions were cherished and committed to memory, 
and shortly after the introduction of Christianity 
the Old l^orse literature w^as put in writing. 

The ancient literature and traditions of Iceland 
excel anything of their kind in Europe during the 
middle ages. The Icelandic poems have no parallel 

* Mountains covered with perpetual snow are called "jokuls" in Iceland, 



AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 5 i 

in all the treasures of ancient literatnre. There are 
gigantic proportions about them, and great and over- 
whelming tragedies in them, which rival those ot 
Greece. The early literature of Iceland is now fast 
becoming recognized as equal to that of ancient 
Greece and Eome. 

The original Teutonic life lived longer and more 
independently in Norway, and especially in Iceland, 
than elsewhere, and had more favorable opportuni- 
ties to grow and mature ; and the Icelandic literature 
is the full-blown flower of Teutonic heathendom. 
This Teutonic heathendom, with its beautiful and 
poetical mythology, was rooted out by superstitious 
priests in Germany, and the other countries inhab- 
ited by Teutonic peoples, before it had developed 
sufficiently to produce blossoms, excepting in Eng- 
land, where a kindred branch of the Gothic race 
rose to eminence in letters, and produced the Anglo- 
Saxon literature. 



CHAPTER YII. 



GREENLAND. 

T3UT, as time passed on, the people of Iceland 
-^-^ felt a new impulse for colonizing new and 
strange lands, and the tide of emigration began to 
tend with irresistible force toward Greenland, in 
the west, which country also became settled in spite 
of its wretched climate. 

The discovery of Greenland was a natural con- 
sequence of the settlement of Iceland, just as the 
discovery of America afterward was a natural con- 
sequence of the settlement of Greenland. Between 
the western part of Iceland and the eastern part of 
Greenland there is a distance of only forty-live 
geographical miles. Hence, some of the ships that 
sailed to Iceland, at the time of the settlement of 
this island and later, could in case of a violent east 
wind, which is no rare occurrence in those regions, 
scarcely avoid approaching the coast of Greenland 
sufficiently to catch a glimpse of its jokuls, — nay, 
even to land on its islands and promontories. Thus 



AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 59 

it is said that Gunnbjorn, Ulf Krage's son, saw land 
lying in the ocean at the west of Iceland, when, in 
the year 876, he was driven out to the sea by a 
storm. Similar reports were heard, from time to 
time, by other mariners. About a century later a 
certain man, by name Erik the Red, had fled from 
the Jader, in Norway, on account of manslaughter, 
and had settled in the western part of Iceland. 
Here he also was outlawed for manslaughter, by 
the public assembly, and condemned to banishment. 
He therefore fitted out his ship, and resolved to 
go in search of the land in the west that Gunnbjorn 
and others had seen. He set sail in the year 984, 
and found the land as he had expected, and re- 
mained there exploring the country for two years. 
At the end of this period he returned to Iceland, 
giving the newly-discovered country the name of 
Greenland, in order, as he said, to attract settlers, 
who would be favorably impressed with so pleasing 
a name. 

The result was that many Icelanders and ^N'orse- 
men emigrated to Greenland, and a flourishing 
colony was established, with Gardar for its capital 
city, which in the year 1261, became subject to the 
crown of Norway. The Greenland colony main- 
tained its connection with the mother countries for 



60 AMEKICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

a period of no less than 400 years ; yet it finally 

disappeared, and was almost forgotten. Torfseus 

gives a list of seventeen bishops who ruled in 
Greenland. 



CHAPTER VIII 



THE SHIPS OF THE NORSEMEN. 

T3EFORE following the Norsemen farther on 
-*— ^ their westwai'd course, it may not be out of 
place to say a few words about their ships. Having 
crossed the briny deep four times myself, I have 
seen something of what is required in order to ven- 
ture with safety on so long watery journeys. I have 
also seen one of the old Norse Yiking ships, which 
is preserved at the University of IS'orway, and it 
seemed to me an excellent one both in respect to 
form and size. I^ow, I do not mean to say that the 
old I^orsemen possessed sucn ocean crafts as now 
plow the deep between New York and Liverpool ; 
but what I mean to say is this, that the Norsemen 
were then, as they are now, very excellent navigators. 
They had good sea-going vessels, some of which wei-e 
of large size. We have an account, in Olaf Trygve- 
son's Saga, of one that was in manj respects remark- 
able. That part of the keel which rested on the 
ground was 140 feet long. None but the choicest 



62 AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

material was used in its construction. It contained 
thirty-four rowing-benclies, and its stem and stern 
were overlaid with gold.^' Their vessels would com- 
pare favorably with those of other nations, which have 
been used in later times in expeditions around the 
world, and were in every way adapted for an ocean 
voyage. They certainly were as well fitted to cross 
the Atlantic as were the ships of Columbus. From 
the Sagas we also learn that the ]^orsemen fully 
understood the importance of cultivating the study 
of navigation ; they knew how to calculate the course 
of the sun and moon, and how to measure time by 
the stars. Without a high degree of nautical knowl- 
edge they could never have accomplished their voy- 
ages to England, France, Spain, Sicily, Greece, and 
those still more difficult vovaojes to Iceland and 
Greenland. 

I have now given a brief historical sketch of the 
voyages and enterprises of the Norsemen. I have 
done this to show that they were capable of the 

*This ship of Olaf Trygveson was called the Long Serpent, and was 
built by the ship-carpenter Thorberg, who is celebrated in the annals of 
the North for his ship-building. The Earl Hakon had a dragon containing 
forty rowing-benches. King Canute had one containing sixty, and King 
Olaf, the saint, possessed two ships capable of carrying two hundred men 
each. The Norse dragons glided on the waters as gracefully as ducks or 
swans, of which they also had the form. Compare also "Saga Fridthjofs 
ens Frsekna," (the Saga of Fridthjof the Bold, in •• Viking Tales of the 
North,") chapter 1, where his good ship Ellida is described. 



AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 63 

exploit of discovering America — nay, that it was in 
fact an nnavoidable result of their constant seafaring 
life; so that even if we did not have the nrnnis- 
takable language of the Sagas, we might still be 
able to assert,' with a considerable degree of cer- 
tainty, that the Norsemen must have been aware of 
the existence of the American continent. Yes, the 
Norsemen w^ere truly a great people ! Their spirit 
found its way into the Magna Charta^' of England 
and into the Declaration of Inependence in America. 
The spirit of the Yikings still survives in the bosoms 
of Englishmen, Americans and Norsemen, extending 
their commerce, taking bold positions against tyr- 
anny, and producing wonderful internal improve- 
ments in these countries. 

* Compare William and Mary Howitt. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE SAGAS AND DOCUMENTS ARE GENUINE. 

"TXT^E have now seen that the Norsemen made 
' ^ themselves known in every part of tlie 
civiHzed world; that they had excellent ships, that 
they vt^ere well trained seaman, and a highly civ- 
ilized nation, possessing in fact all the means 
necessary for reaching the continent in the west; 
and we are thus prepared for the vital question, 
Did the Norsemen actually discover and explore 
the coast of the country now known as America? 
There is certainly no improbability in the idea. 
Open an atlas at the map of the Atlantic Ocean, 
or at the maps of the two hemispheres. Observe 
the distance between Norway and Iceland, and the 
distances between Iceland and Greenland and Green- 
land and Newfoundland. You perceive it is more 
than twice the distance between Norway and Ice- 
land that it is between Iceland and Greenland, and 
not far from twice the distance that it is betw^een 
Greenland and Labrador, and thence on to New- 



AISEEKICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 65 

foundland. Now, after conceding the fact that 
Korse colonies existed in Greenland for at least 
three hundred years, which every student of ISTorse 
history knows to be a fact, we must prepare our- 
selves for the proposition that America was dis- 
covered by the Norsemen. It would be alto- 
gether unreasonable to suppose that a seafaring 
people like the Norsemen, who traversed the 
broad western ocean to reach Iceland and Green- 
land, could live for three centuries within a short 
voyage of this vast continent and never become 
aware of its existence. 

But fortunately on this point we are not left to 
conjecture. We have a complete written record of 
the discovery. Intelligent men must first succeed 
in blotting out innumerable pages of well authen- 
ticated history before they undertake to deny or 
dispute the facts of this discovery. While literary 
darkness overspread the whole of the European 
continent for many centuries following the tenth, 
letters were highly cultivated in Iceland ; and this 
is the very time and country in which the Sagas 
containing a record of the discovery of America 
originated. That they were written long before 
Columbus is as easy to demonstrate as the fact 
that Herodotos wrote his history before the era of 



QQ AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

Christ. The authenticity and authority of the Ice- 
landic Sagas has been fully acknowledged by Alex- 
ander VON Humboldt in his Cosmos,'^ by Malte- 
BRUNjf and many other distinguished scholars; and 
therefore a further discussion is at this time un- 
necessary on this point. 

The manuscripts, in which we have the Sagas 
relating to America, are found in the celebrated 
Codex Flatceensis, a skin-book that was finished in 
the year 1387. This work, written with great care 
and executed in the highest style of art, is now 
preserved in its integrity in the archives of Copen- 

* Cosmos, Vol. ii., pp. 269-272, where Alexander Von Humboldt, 
discussing the pre-Columbian discovery of America by the Norsemen, 
says: "We are here on historical ground. By the critical and highly 
praiseworthy efforts of Professor Rafn and the Royal Society of Northern 
Antiquaries in Copenhagen, the Sagas and documents in regard to the 
expeditions of the Norsemen to Helluland (Newfoundland), to Markland 
(the mouth of the St. Lawrence river and Nova Scotia), and to Vinland 
(Massachusetts), have been published and satisfactorily commented upon. 
* * * The discovery of the northern part of America by the Norsemen 
cannot be disputed. The length of the voyage, the direction in which 
they sailed, the time of the sun's rising and setting, are accurately given. 
While the Chalifat of Bagdad was still flourishing under the Abbasides, 
and while the rule of the Samanides, so favorable to poetry, still flour- 
ished in Persia, America was discovered, about the year 1000, by Leif. son 
of Erik the Red, at about 41V2° N. L." 

t Vid. Nouvelles annales des voyages, de la geographic, de I'histoire 
et de I'arche'ologie, rddige'es par M. V.-A. Malte-Brun, secretaire de la 
commission centrale de la societe de geographic de Paris, member de 
plusieurs societes savantes. Aoiit, 1858, p. 253. 



AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 67 

hagen, and a carefully printed copy" of it is to be 
found in Mimer's library at the University of Wis- 
consin. We gather from this work that the Norse- 
men, after discovering and settling Greenland, and 
then keeping a bold southwestern course, discovered 
America more than 500 years before Columbus; and 
I shall in the following chapters present some of 
the main circumstances of this discovery. 

* Flateyarbok, Christiauia (Norway), 1860-1868. 



X 



CHAPTER X. 



BJARNE HERJULFSON, 986. 

"TN the year 986, the same year that he returned 
from Greenland, the above-named Erik the 
Ked moved from Iceland to Greenland, and among 
his numerous friends, who accompanied him, was 
an Icelander by name Herjulf. 

Herjulf had a son by name Bjarne, who was a 
man of enterprise and fond of going abroad, and 
who possessed a merchant-ship, with which he gath- 
ered wealth and reputation. He used to be by 
turns a year abroad and a year at home with his 
father. He chanced to be away in Norway when 
his father moved over to Greenland, and on return- 
ing to Iceland he was so much disappointed on 
hearing of his father's departure with Erik, that 
he would not unload his ship, but resolved to 
follow his old custom and take up his abode with 
his father. " Who will go with me to Greenland ? " 
said he to his men. ""We will all go with yqu," 
replied the men. "But we have none of us ever 



AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 69 

been on the Greenland Sea before," said Bjarne. 
" We mind not that," said the men, — so away they 
sailed for three days and lost sight of Iceland. 
Then the wind failed. After that a north wind 
and fog set in, and they knew not where they were 
sailing to. This lasted many days, until the sun 
at length appeared again, so that they could deter- 
mine the quarters of the sky, and lo ! in the horizon 
they saw, like a blue cloud, the outlines of an un- 
known land. They approached it. They saw that 
it was without mountains, was covered with wood, 
and that there were small hills inland. Bjarne 
saw that this did not answer to the description of 
Greenland ; he knew he was too far south ; so he 
left the land on the larboard side and sailed north- 
ward two days, when they got sight of land again. 
The men asked Bjarne if this was Greenland ; but 
he said it was not, "For in Greenland," he said, 
" there are great snowy mountains ; but this land 
is flat and covered with trees." They did not go 
ashore, but turning the bow from the land, they 
kept the sea with a fine breeze from the southwest 
for three days, when a third land was seen. Still 
Bjarne would not go ashore, for it was not like 
what had been reported of Greenland. So they 
sailed on, driven by a violent southwest wind, and 



70 AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

after four days they reached a land which suited the 
description of Greenland. Bjarne was not deceived, 
for it was Greenland, and he happened to land 
close to the place where his father had settled. 

It cannot be determined with certainty what 
parts of the American coast Bjarne saw ; but from 
the circumstances of the voyage, the course of the 
winds, the direction of the currents, and the pre- 
sumed distance between each sight of land, there is 
reason to believe that the first land that Bjarne saw 
in the year 986 was the present Nantucket, one 
degree south of Boston ; the second I^ova Scotia, 
and the third J^ewfoundland. Thus Bjarne Her- 
JULFSON was the first Euroi)ean whose eyes beheld 
any part of the present New England. Tlie first 
European who saw the American continent^ and 
whose name is recorded, was Are M arson (see p. 18). 
He went to Great Ireland (the Chesapeake country), 
which had undoubtedly been discovered by the Irish 
even long before Are visited there in the year 983. 



CHAPTER XI. 



LEIF ERIKSON, 1000. 

WHE]^ Bjarne visited Norway, a few years 
later, anT'told of his adventure, he was 
censured in strong terms by Jarl (Earl) Erik and 
others, because he had manifested so little interest 
that he had not even gone ashore and explored 
these lands, and because he could give no more 
definite account of them. Still, what he did say 
was suificient to arouse in the mind of Leif Eeik- 
soN, son of Erik the Ked, a determination to solve 
the problem and find out what kind of lands these 
were that were talked so much about. He bought 
Bjarne's ship from him, set sail with a good crew 
of thirty-five men, and found the lapds just as 
Bjarne had described them, far away to the south- 
west of Greenland. They landed in Helluland 
(^Newfoundland) and in Markland (Nova Scotia), 
explored these countries somewhat, gave them names, 
and proceeded from the latter into the open sea 
with a northeast wind, and were two days at sea 



72 AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

before they saw land again. They sailed into a 
sound. It was very shallow at ebb-tide, so that 
their ship stood dry and there was a long way from 
their ship to the water. But so much did they 
desire to land that they did not give themselves 
time to wait until the water rose again under their 
ship, but ran ^t once on shore, at a place where a 
river flows out of a lake."^ But as soon as the 
water rose up under the ship, they rowed out in 
their boats, floated the ship up the river and thence 
into the lake, where they cast anchor, brought their 
skin cots out of the ship, and raised their tents. 
After this they took counsel, and resolved to remain 
through the winter, and built a large house. There 
was no want of sahnon, either in the river or in the 
lake, and larger salmon than they had before seen. 
The nature of the country was, as they thought, so 
good that cattle would not require house-feeding in 
winter. Day and night were more equal than in 
Greenland or Iceland, for on the shortest day the sun 
was above the horizon from half-past seven in the 
forenoon till half-past four in the afernoon ; which 
circumstance gives for the latitude of the place 41° 
24:' W ; hence Leif 's booths are thought to have 

* This lake is Mount Hope Bay. The tourist, in traveling that way by 
rail, will at first take Mount Hope Bay for a lake. B. F. DeCosta, p. 32. 



AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 73 

been situated at or near Fall River, Massachusetts. 
Leif Erikson called the country Yinland, and the 
cause of this was the following interesting incident : 
There was a German in Leif Erikson's party by 
name Tyrker. He was a prisoner of war, but had 
become Leif 's special favorite. He was missing one 
day after they came back from an exploring expedi- 
tion. Leif Erikson became very anxious about 
Tyrker, and fearing that he might be killed by wild 
beasts or by natives,'^^ he went out with a few men 
to search for him. Toward evening he was found 
coming home, but in a very excited state of mind. 
The cause of his excitement was some fruit which 
he had found and which he held up in his hands, 
shouting: ^' Weintrauben ! Weintrauben ! ! Weintrau- 
ben ! ! ! " The sight and taste of this fruit, to which 
he had been accustomed in his own native land, 
had excited him to such an extent that he seemed 
drunk, and for some time he would do nothing 
but laugh, devour grapes and talk German, which 
language our Norse discoverers did not understand. 
At last he spoke JN^orse, and explained that he, to 

*0ur Norse colonists in Vinland had frequent intercourse with the 
natives, whom they called "Sliriellinger/' This name is derived from the 
adjective " skrall/' which means lean; hence skra?lling is an allusion to their 
lean and shriveled aspect. Compare also the verb " skrsela," which means to 
peel, as " skrael et ^ble," to peel an apple. 
4 



74 AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

his great joy and surprise, had found vines and 
grapes in great abundance. From this circumstance 
the land got the name of Vinland, and history got 
the interesting fact that a German was along with 
the daring argonauts of the Christian era. 

Here is then a short account of the first expedi- 
tion to I^ew England. It took place in the year 
1000, and Leif Erikson was the first pale-faced man 
of whom it is recorded that he undertook a voyage 
across the Atlantic Ocean, wdth the definitely avowed 
purpose of seeking for land. His was no discovery 
by accident. The nature of Leif Erikson's expedi- 
tion, the end sought, etc., was as clearly defined in 
his own mind, and as well understood b}^ his coun- 
trymen, as in the case of the expedition undertaken 
by Columbus in 1492. But Leif did not set heaven 
and earth in commotion in reference to the matter 
of going across the Atlantic Ocean. He simply 
bought Bjarne's ship, engaged thirty-five fearless 
seamen like himself, said good-bye to his aged 
father, and set sail ! 



CHAPTER XII. 



THORVALD ERIKSON, 1002. 

TN" the spring, when the winds were favorable, 
Leif Erikson returned to Greenland. The ex- 
pedition to Yinland was much talked of, and Thor- 
WALD, Leif's brother, thought that the land had 
been much too little explored. Then said Leif to 
Thorvald : '' You may go with raj ship, brother, to 
Yinland, if you like." And so another expedition 
was fitted out, in the year 1002, by Thorwald Erik- 
son, who went to Yinland and remained there three 
years; but it cost him liis life, for in a battle with 
the Skrsellings an arrow from one of the natives of 
America pierced his side, causing death. He was 
buried in Yinland, and two crosses were erected on 
his grave, — one at his head and one at his feet. 
Hallowed ground, this, beneath whose sod rests the 
dust of the first Christian and the first European 
who died in America ! His death and burial also 
gains interest in another respect, for in the year 
1831 there was found in the vicinity of Fall River, 
Massachusetts, a skeleton in armor, and many of 
the circumstances connected with it are so wonderful 



76 AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

that it might indeed seem almost as though it were 
the skeleton of this very Thorvald Erikson ! This 
skeleton in armor attracted much attention at the 
time, was the subject of much learned discussion, 
and our celebrated poet Longfellow wrote, in the 
year 1841, a poem about it, beginning: 

"Speak! speak! thou fearful guest!" 
After which he makes the skeleton tell about his 
adventures as a viking, about the pine forests of 
Norway, about his voyage across the stormy deep, 
and about the discovery of America, concerning 
which he says: 

"Three weeks we westward bore, 
And when the storm was o'er, 
CloudUke we saw the shore . 

Stretching to leeward; 
There, for my lady's bower, 
Built I the lofty tower,* 
Which to this very hour 

Stands looking seaward." 

The following are the last two verses of the 

poem : 

"Still grew my bosom, then. 

Still as a stagnant fen, 

Hateful to me were men. 

The sunlight hateful ! 

* The tower here referred to is the famous Newport tower in Rhode 
Island, which undoubtedly was built by the Norsemen; at least we persist 
in claiming it, until it can be clearly shown that it has been built since the 
landing of the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620. 



AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 77 

In the vast forest here, 
Clad in my warlike gear, 
Fell I upon my spear, — 
Oh, death was grateful! 

"Thus, seamed with many scars. 
Bursting these prison bars. 
Up to its native stars 

My soul ascended. 
There, from the flowing bowl, 
Deep drinks the warrior's soul: 
Skaal! to the Northland, skaal! 
Thus the tale ended," 

The great Swedish chemist Berzelius analyzed* 
a part of the breastplate which was found on the 
skeleton, and found that in composition it corre- 
sponded with metals used in the I^Torth during the 
tenth century ; and comparing the Fall Eiver breast- 
plate with old ]N"orthern armors, it was also found 
to correspond with these in style. 

When the ]N"orsemen had buried their chief, Thor- 
wald, they returned to Leifsbudir (Leif's booths), 
loaded their ships with the products of the land, and 
returned to Greenland in the year 1005. 

* A bronze article found in Denmark, and dating with certainty back 
to the tenth century, was also analyzed, and the annexed table shows the 
result of the analysis: 

Breastplate Bronze Article 

from from 

America. Denmark. 

Copper 70.29 67.13 

Zinc 28.03- 20.39 

Tin 0.91... 9.24 

Lead 0.74 3.39 

Iron.-,..,,,.._...., ....... ...... 0.03. -...._.... ,,,,._,.,^!!^'! 041 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THORSTEIN ERIKSON, 1005. 

npHEN the Sagas tell us that Thoestein, the 
youngest son of Erik the Red, was seized 
with a strong desire to pass over to Yinland to 
fetch the body of his brother Thorvald. He was 
married to Gudrid, a woman remarkable for her 
beauty, her dignity, her prudence, and her good 
discourse. Thorstein fitted out a vessel, manned 
it with twenty-five men selected for their strength 
and stature, besides himself and Gudrid. When 
all was ready they put out to sea, and were soon 
out of sight of land. Through the whole summer 
they were tossed about on the deep, and were 
driven they knew not whither. Finally they made 
land, which they found to be Lysefjord, on the 
western coast of Greenland. Here Thorstein and 
several of his men died, and Gudrid returned to 
Eriksfjord. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



THORFINN KARLSEFNE AND GUDRID, 1007. 

npHE most distinguished explorer of Yinland 
-^ was Thorfinn Karlsefne. He was a wealthy 
and influential man. He was descended from the 
most famous families in the North. Several of his 
ancestors had been elected kings. In the fall of 
1006 he came from Norway to Erikstjord with 
two ships. Karlsefne made rich presents to Leif 
Erikson, and Leif oifered the Norse navigator the 
hospitalities of Brattahlid during winter. After the 
Yule festival Thorfinn began to treat w^ith Leif as 
to the marriage of Gudrid, Leif being the person 
to whom the right of betrothment belonged. Leif 
gave a favorable ear to his advances, and in the 
course of the winter their nuptials were celebrated 
with due ceremony. The conversation frequently 
turned at Brattahlid upon Yinland the Good, many 
saying that an expedition thither held out fair 
prospects of gain. The result was that Thorfinn, 
accompanied by his wife, who urged him to the 
undertaking, sailed to Yinland in the spring of 



80 AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

1007, and remained there three years. The Sagas 
lay considerable stress upon the fact that Gudrid 
persuaded him to undertake this expedition. She 
also appears to have taken a prominent part in 
the whole enterprise. Imagine yourself way off in 
Greenland. Imagine Gudrid and Thorhnn Karl- 
sefne taking a walk together on the sea-beach, and 
Gudrid talking to her husband in this wise: 

"I wonder that you, Thorlinn, with good sliips 
and many stout men, and plenty of means, should 
choose to remain in this barren spot instead of 
searching out the famous Vinland and making a 
settlement there. Just think what a splendid coun- 
try it must be, and what a desirable change for all 
of us. Thick and leafy woods like those of old 
Norway, instead of these rugged clifi's and snow-clad 
hills. Fields of waving grass and rye instead of 
moss-covered rocks and sandy soil. Trees large 
enough to build houses and ships instead of willow 
bushes, that are fit for nothing except to save our 
cattle from starvation when the hay-crop runs out ; 
besides longer sunshine in winter, and more genial 
warmth all the year round, instead of howling winds 
and ice and snow. Truly I think this country was 
wofully misnamed when they called it Greenland." 

Yon can easily imagine that Thoz'finn was coi?- 



AMEKICA NOT DISCOVEEED BY COLUMBUS. 81 

vinced by such persuasive arguments, and he resolved 
to follow his wife's advice. 

The expedition which now set ont for Yinland 
was on a much larger scale than any of the expedi- 
tions that had preceded it. That Leif and Thorvald 
and Thorstein had not intended to make their per- 
manent abode in Yinland was plain, from the fact 
that they brought neither women nor flocks nor 
herds with them. Karlsefne, on the other hand, 
went forth fully equipped for colonization. The 
party consisted of 07ie Jnmdred and fifty-one men 
and seven women. A number of cattle and sheep 
were also carried on this occasion to Yinland. They 
all arrived there in safety, and remained, as has 
been stated, three years, when hostilities between 
them and the Skrgellings compelled them to give 
up their colony. 

The Saga gives a very full account of Thoriinn's 
enterprises in Yinland ; about the traffic with the 
Skrgellings ; about the development of the colony, 
etc. ; all of which I am compelled to omit in this 
sketch. I mnst call attention, however, to the 
interesting fact that a son was born to Thorfinn 
and Gudrid the year after they had established 
themselves in their quarters at Straumfjord (Buz- 
zard's Bay). His name was Snoree Thorfinnson. 



82 AMERICA KOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

He was born in the present State of Massachusetts, 
in the year 1008, and he was the first man of 
European blood of whose birth in America we have 
any record. From liim the famous sculptor, Albert 
Thorwaldsen, is lineally descended, besides a long 
train of learned and distinguished men who have 
flourished during the last eight centuries in Iceland 
and Denmark. 

In the next place, attention is invited to an 
inscription on a rock, situated on the right bank of 
the Taunton river, in Bristol county, Massachusetts. 
It is familiarly called the Dighton Writing Rock 
Inscription. It stands in the very region which 
the Korsemen frequented. It is written in char- 
acters which the natives have never used nor sculp- 
tured. This inscription Avas copied by Dr. Danforth 
as early as 1680, by Cotton Mather in 1712 ; it 
was copied by Dr. Greenwood in 1730, by Stephen 
Sewell in 1768, by James Winthrop in 1788, and 
has been copied at least four times in the present 
centuiy. The rock was seen and talked of by the 
first settlers in Xew England, long before anything 
was said about the Norsemen discovering America 
before Columbus. 



AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 83 

Near the center of the inscription we read dis- 
tinctl}^, in Roman characters, 

CXXXI, 
which is 151,^ the exact number of Thorfinn's party. 
Then we find an N", a boat, and the Runic character 
for M, which may be interpreted " N(orse) seafaring 
M(en)." Besides we have the word NAM — took 
(took possession), and the whole of Thorfinn's name, 
with the exception of the first letter. Repeating 
these characters we have 



ORFIN, CXXXI, N ^^^fe M, NAM, 
which has been interpreted by Prof. Rafn as fol- 
lows: ''Thorfinn, with one hundred and fifty-one 
Norse seafaring men took possession of tliis land 
(landnam)." 

In the lower left corner of the inscription is a 
fio'ure of a woman and a child, near the latter of 
which is the letter S, reminding us most forcibly 
of Gudrid and her son, Snorre. Upon the whole, 
the Dighton Writing Rock, if Prof Rafn's plates 
and interpretations can be relied upon, removes all 
doubt concerning the presence of Thorfinn Karlsefne 
and the Norsemen at Taunton River, in the begin- 
ning of the eleventh century.f 

* The Icelanders reckoned twelve decades to the hundred and called 
it stort hundrad (great hundred), 
t See page 22. 



CHAPTER XV. 



OTHER EXPEDITIONS BY THE NORSEMEN. 

rriHE Sagas give elaborate accounts of other 
-^ expeditions by the l^orsemen to Yinland. 
Thus there is one by Freydis in the year 1011 ; 
and in the year 1121 the Bishop Erik Upsi went 
as^a missionary to Yinland. 

Then there are Sagas that give accounts of expe- 
ditions by N^orsemen to Great Island (North and 
South Carolina, Georgia and Florida), but I will 
omit these in the present sketch/'^ 

The last expedition mentioned was in the year 
1347, but this was in the time of the Black Plague, 
which raged throughout Europe with unrelenting fury 
from 1347 to 1351, and also reached Iceland, Green- 
land and Yinland, and cut off communication between 
these countries. The Black Plague reduced the popu- 
lation of Norway alone from two millions to three 
hundred thousand, and this fact gives us some idea of 
the terrible ravages of this fearful epidemic. It is 
evident that the Black Plague left no surplus popula- 
tion for expeditions to America or elsewhere. 

* See page 18. 



CHAPTER XVT 



THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY COLUMBUS. 

"T WILL now devote a few pages to poiiicing out 
-^ some of the threads that connect this discovery 
of America by the Norsemen with the more recent 
and better-known discovery by Columbus. 

1. From a letter which Columbus himself wrote, 
and which we find quoted in Washington Irving's 
Columhiis,'^ we know positively that while the de- 
sign of attempting the discovery in the west was 
maturing 'in the mind of Columbus, he made a 
voyage to the north of Europe, and visited Iceland. 
This was in February, 1477, and in his conversation 
with the Bishop and other learned men of Iceland, 
he must have been informed of the extraordinary 
fact, that their countrymen had discovered a great 
country beyond the western ocean, which seemed 
to extend southward to a great distance. This was 
a circumstance not likely to rest quietly in the 
active and speculative mind of the great geographer 

* Vol. 1, p. 59. 



Ob AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

and navigator. The reader will observe that, when 
Columbus was in Iceland, in the year 1477, fifteen 
years before he discovered America, only one hun- 
dred and thirty years liad elapsed since the last 
JS^orse expedition to Yinland. There were undoubt- 
edly people still living whose grandfathers had 
crossed the Atlantic, and it would be altogether 
unreasonable to suppose that he, who was constantly 
studying and talking about geography and navigation, 
possibly could visit Iceland and not hear anything of 
the land in the west. 

2. Gudrid, the Avife of Thorfinn and mother of 
Snorre, made a pilgrimage to Rome after the death 
of her husband. It is related that she w^as well 
received, and she certainly must have talked there 
of her ever memorable trans-oceanic voyage to Yin- 
land, and her three years' residence there. Rome 
paid much attention to geographical discoveries, and 
took pains to collect all new charts and reports 
that were brought there. Every new discovery was 
an aggrandizement of the papal dominion, a new 
field for the preaching of the Gospel. The Romans 
might have heard of Yinland before, but she brought 
personal evidence. 

3. That Yinland was known at the Yatican is 
clearly proved by the fact that Pope Paschal II, 



AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 87 

in the year 1112, appointed Erik Upsi, Bishop of 
Iceland, Greenland and Yinland, and Erik Upsi 
went personally to Yinland in the year 1121. 

4. Recent developments in relation to Columbus 
tend to prove that he had opportunity to see a 
map of Yinland, procured from the Yatican for the 
Pinzons, and it would indeed astonish us more to 
learn that he, with his nautical knowledge, did not 
hear of America than that he did. We must also 
bear in mind that Columbus lived in an age of 
discovery; England, France, Portugal and Spain 
were vying with each other in discovering new 
lands and extending their territories. 

5. But in addition to the Sagas, the Dighton 
Writing Rock, the Newport Tower (which the 
Indians told the early 'New England settlers was 
built by the giants, and the Norse discoverers cer- 
tainly looked like giants to the natives, since the 
former called the latter Skrgellings) ; and in addition 
to the SKELETON IN ARMOR, we have a remarkable 
record of the early discovery of America by the 
Norsemen in the writings of Adam of Bremen, a 
canon and historian of high authority, who died in 
the year 1076. He visited the Danish king Svend 
Estridson, a nephew of Canute the Great, and on 
his return home he wrote a book '' On tlie Propd- 



Ob AlVIEEICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

gatio7i of the Christian Religion in the North of 
Europe,'^ and at the end of this book he added a 
geographical treatise " On the Position of Denmark 
and other regions heyond Denmark ^ Having given 
an account of Denmark, Sweden, jN"orwaj, Iceland 
and Greenland, he says that, " besides these there is 
still another region^ which has heen visited hy many, 
lying in that Ocean {the Atlantic), which is called 
y INLAND, hecause vines grow thei^e sjjontaneously, 
producing very good wine '^ corn likewise springs 
up there without heing sown f^ and as Adam of 
Bremen closes his account of Yinland he adds these 
remarkable words : " This we know not hy fahu- 
lous conjecture, hut from, positive statements of the 
Danes P 

JSTow, Adam of Bremen's work was first pub- 
lished in the year 1073, and was read by intelligent 
men throughout Europe, and Columbus being an 
educated man, and so deeply interested in geograph- 
ical studies, especially when they treated of the 
Atlantic Ocean, conld he be ignorant of so important 
a work ? 

I have here given five reasons why Columbus 
must have known the existence of the American 
continent before he started on his voyage of discov- 
ery. 1. Gudrid's visit to Eome. 2. The appoint- 



AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 89 

ment, by Pope Pascal II, of Erik Upsi as Bishop of 
Yinland. 3. Adam of Bremen's account of Yinland, 
in his book published in 1073. 4. The map pro- 
cured from the Vatican for the Pinzons, which fact 
I have not, however, yet been able to establish with 
absolute certainty ; and, 5, which caps the climax. 
Columbus' own visit to Iceland in the year 1477. 

These are stubborn facts, and, if you read the 
biography of Columbus, you will find that he always 
maintained a firm conviction that there was land in 
the west. He says himself that he based this con- 
viction on the authority of the learned vyriters. He 
stated, before he left Spain, that he expected to find 
land soon after sailing about seven hundred leagues; 
hence he knew the breadth of the ocean, and must, 
therefore, have had a pretty definite knowledge of 
the situation of Yinland and Great Ireland. A day 
or two. before coming in sight of the new world, he 
capitulated with his mutinous crew, promising, if he 
did not discover land within three days, to abandon 
the voyage. In fact, the whole history of his dis- 
covery proves that he either must have possessed 
previous knowledge of America, or, as some have 
had the audacity to maintain, been inspired. We 
do not believe in that sort of inspiration. It makes 
Columbus a greater man, in our estimation, that he 



90 AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

formed his opinion bj a chain of logical deductions 
based upon thorough study and research. It is to 
the credit of Columbus, we saj, that he investigated 
the nature of things; that he diligently searched the 
learned writers; that he paid close attention to all 
reports of navigators, and gathered up all those scat- 
tered gleams of knowledge that fell ineffectually upon 
ordinary minds. Washington Irving says : " AVhen 
Columbus had formed his theory it became fixed in 
his mind with singular firmness. He never spoke 
in doubt or hesitation, but with as much certainty as 
if his eyes had already beheld the promised land." 
We say, if he held this firm conviction on only 
presumptive evidence, then, with all due respect for 
his distinguished biographer, he is not entitled to 
the enviable reputation for scholarship and good 
judgment that has been accredited to him by Wash- 
ington Irving. We claim to be vindicating the great 
name of Columbus, by showing that he must have 
based his certainty upon equally certain facts, \vhich 
he possessed the ability and patience to study out, 
and the keenness of intellect to put together, and 
this gives historical imjportance to the discovery 
of America by the Norsemen. The fault that we 
find with Columbus is, that he was not honest and 
frank enough to tell where and how he had obtained 



AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 91 

his previous information about the lands wliich he 
pretended to discover; that he sometimes talked of 
himself as chosen by Heaven to make this discovery, 
and that he made the fruits of his labors subservient 
to the dominion of inquisition. 

If our theory, then, does not make Columbus out 
as true and good a man as the reader may have con- 
sidered him, we still insist that it proves him a man 
of extraordinary ability. It shows that he discovered 
America by study and research, and not by accident 
or inspiration. Care should always be taken to vin- 
dicate great names from accident or inspiration. It 
defeats one of the most salutary purposes of history 
and biography, wliich is to furnish examples of what 
human genius and laudable enterprise can accomplish."^ 

That the Spanish and more recent colonies in 
America could become more permanent than the 
Norse colonies, is chiefly to be attributed to the 
superiority that fire-arms gave the Europeans over 
the natives. The Norsemen had no fire-arms, and 
their higher culture could not defend them against 
the swarms of savages that attacked them. In the 
next place, the Black Plague reduced the popula- 
tion of Norway and Iceland beyond the necessity or 
even possibility to emigrate. If the communication 

* Washington Irving. 



92 AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

between Yinland and the North could have been 
maintained say one hundred years longer, that is, to 
the middle of the fifteenth century, it is difficult to 
determine what the result would have been. Possi- 
bly this sketch would have appeared in Icelandic 
instead of English. Undoubtedly the Norse colonies 
would have become firmly rooted by that time, and 
Norse language, nationality and institutions might 
have played as conspicuous a part in America as the 
English and their posterity do now-a-days. 



CHAPTER XVII, 



CONCLUSION. 

BUT it is not within the scope of this sketch 
to discuss this subject any farther. Let iis 
remember Leif Erikson, the first white man who 
turned the bow of his ship to the west for the pur- 
pose of finding America. Let us remember his 
brother, Thoryald Erikson, the first European and 
the first Christian who was buried beneath Ameri- 
can sod ! Let us not forget Thorfinn and Gud- 
RiD, who established the first European colony in 
New England ! nor their little son, Snorre, the first 
man of European blood whose birthplace was in 
the New World! Let ns erect a monument to Leif 
Erikson worthy of the man and the cause ; and 
while the knowledge of this discovery of America 
lay for a long time hid in the unstudied literature 
of Iceland, let us take this lesson, that " trxotJi 
crushed to earth iiill rise again; " that truth may 
often lie darkened and hid for a long time, but 
that it is like the beam of light from a star in 
some far distant region of the universe — after 



9tl: AMERICA NOT DISOOVERED BY COLUMBUS. 

thousands of years it reaches some heavenly body 
and gives it light. 

In the language of Mr. Davis : " Let us praise 
Leif Erikson for his courage, let us applaud him 
for his zeal, let us respect him for his motives, for 
he was anxious to enlarge the boundaries of knowl- 
edge. He reached the wished-for land, 

" ' Where now the western sun, 
O'er fields and floods, 
O'er every living soul 
DifFuseth glad repose.' 

He opened to the view a broad region, where smil- 
ing hope invites successive generations from the 
old world. 

" Such men as an Alexander, or a Tamerlane, 
conquer but to devastate countries. Discoverers add 
new regions of fertility and beauty to those already 
known. 

"And are not the hardy adventurers, plowing 
the briny deep, more attractive than the troops of 
Alexander, or JS'apoleon, marching to conquer the 
world, with plumes weaving in the gentle breeze, 
and with arms glittering in the sunbeams? Who 
can tell all the benefits that discoverers confer on 
mankind ? 

" To count them all demands a thousand tongues, 
A throat of brass and adamantine lungs.' " 



WHAT SCHOLARS SAT 

ABOUT THE 

HisTOEiCAL, Linguistic and Literary Value 

OF THE 

SCAIDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 



"Der ar flagga pa mast och den visar at norr, och 
i norr ar den alskade jord ; 
jag vill folja de himmelska vindarnas gang, jag vill 
styra tillbaka mot Nord." 

— Tegner. 

ENGLISH VERSION. 

" There's the flag on the mast, and it points to the North, 
And the North liolds the land that I love. 
I will steer back to northward, the heavenly course 
Of the winds guiding sure from above." 

YERY little attention has hitherto been given in 
this country to the study of Scandinavian history, 
languages and literatures. We think this branch of 
study would not be so much neglected, if it were more 
generally known what an extensive source of intel- 
lectual pleasure it affords to the scholar who is ac- 
quainted with it. We hope, therefore, to serve a good 
cause by calling your attention to a few quotations from 
American, English, German, and French scholars, who 
have given much time and attention to the above named 
subject, in order that it may be known what they, who 



96 THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 

may justly be considered competent to judge, say of their 
importance. 

I Avill add that I have not found a scholar, who has 
devoted himself to this field of study and research, that 
has not at the same time become an entliusiasiic admirer 
of Scandinavian and particularly Icelandic history, lan- 
guages and literatures. 

To scientific studei;ts it is sufficient to say, that a 
knowledge "of the Scandinavian languages at once intro- 
duces them to several writers of great eminence in the 
scientific world. I will briefly mention a few. 

Hans Christian Oersted won for himself one of 
the greatest names of the age. His discovery, in 1820, of 
electro-magnetism — the identity of electricity and mag- 
netism — which he not only discovered, but demon- 
strated incontestably, placed him at once in the highest 
rank of physical philosophers, and has led to all the 
wonders of the electric telegraph. His great work, " The 
Soul of Nature," in which he promulgates his grand 
doctrine of the universe, abundantly repays a careful 
perusal. 

Carl von Linne (Linnaeus) is the polar star in 
botany. He was professor at the University of Sweden, 
died in 1788, and is the founder of the established system 
of botany. As Linnaeus is the father of botany, so Ber- 
ZELius might be called the ftither of the present system 
of chemistry. He is one of the greatest ornaments of 
science. He devoted his whole life sedulously to the 
promotion and extension of his favorite science, and to 
him is the world indebted for the discovery of many 
new elementary principles and valuable chemical com- 



THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 9< 

hi nations now in general use. He filled the chair of 
chemistry in the University of Stockholm for forty-two 
years, and died in 1848. Scheele, Michael Sars, 
Hansteen, and several others, are men who have dis- 
tinguished themselves hy their labors in the field of 
science, natural history and astronomy. And now read 
the following quotations, which we have promised to 
present. 

Mr. North Ludlow Beamish says: "The national 
literature of Iceland holds a distinct and eminent position 
in the literature of Europe. In that remote and cheer- 
less isle * * * religion and learning took up their 
tranquil abode, before the south of Europe had yet 
emerged from the mental darkness which' followed the 
fall of the Eoman Empire. There the unerring memo- 
ries of the Skalds and Sagamen were the depositories of 
past events, which, handed down from age to age, in one 
unbroken line of historical tradition, were committed to 
writing on the introduction of Christianity, and now 
come before us with an internal evidence of their truth, 
which places them amongst the highest order of historical 
records. 

" To investigate the origin of this remarkable ad- 
vancement in mental culture, and trace the progressive 
steps by which Icelandic literature attained an eminence 
which even now imparts a lustre to that barren land, is 
an object of interesting and instructive inquiry. 

"Among no other people of Europe can the concep- 
tion and birth of historical literature be more clearly 
traced than amongst the people of Iceland. Here it can 
be shown how memory took root, and gave birth to 
5 



98 THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 

narrative; how narrative multiplied and increased until 
it was committed to writing, and how the written rela- 
tion eventually became sifted and arranged in chrono- 
logical order." 

Samuel Laing, Esq. — "All that men hope for of 
good government and future improvement in their 
physical and moral condition, — all that civilized men 
enjoy at this day of civil, religious and political liberty 
— the British constitution, representative legislature, 
the trial by jury, security of property, freedom of mind 
and person, the influence of public opinion over the con- 
duct of public aff'airs, the Reformation, the liberty of the 
press, the spirit of the age, — all that is or has been of 
value to man in modern times as a member of society, 
either in Europe or in America, may be traced to the 
spark left burning upon our shores by the Norwegian 
barbarians. 

" There seem no good grounds for the fa^vorite and 
hackneyed course of all who have written on the origin 
of the British constitution and trial by jury, who un- 
riddle a few dark phrases of Tacitus concerning the 
institutions of the ancient Germanic tribes, and trace up 
to that obscure source the origin of all political institu- 
tions connected with freedom in modern Europe. In 
the (Norwegian) Sagas we find, at a period immediately 
preceding the first traces of free institutions in our 
history, the rude but very vigorous demonstrations of 
similar institutions existing in great activity among 
those northern people, who were masters of the country 
under Canute the G-reat, who for two generations before 
his time had occupied and inhabited a very large portion 



THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. ViJ 

of it, and of whom a branch under William of Normandy 
became its ultimate and permanent conquerors. It may 
be more classical to search in the pages of Tacitus for 
allusions to the customs of the tribes wandering in his 
day through the forests of Germany, wiiich may bear 
some feint resemblance to modern institutions, or to 
what we fancy our modern institutions may have been 
in their infancy ; but it seems more consistent with 
correct principles of historic research to look for the 
origin of our institutions at the nearest, not at the most 
remote, source ; not at what existed 1,000 years before 
in the woods of Germany, among people whom we must 
believe upon supposition to have been the ancestors of 
the invaders from the north of the Elbe, who conquered 
England, and must again believe upon supposition, that 
when this people were conquered successively by the 
Danes and Normans, they imposed their own peculiar 
institutions upon their conquerors, instead of receiving 
institutions from them; but at what actually existed, 
when the first notice of assemblies for legislative pur- 
poses can be traced in English history among the con- 
querors of the country, a cognate people, long established 
by previous conquests in a large portion of it, who used, 
if not the same, at least a language common to both, 
and who had no occasion to borrow, from the conquered, 
institutions which were flourishing at the time in their 
mother country in much greater vigor. It is in these 
(Norwegian) Sagas, not in Tacitus, that we have to look 
for the origin of the political institutions of England. 
The reference of all matters to the legislative assemblies 
of the people is one of the most striking facts in the 
Sagas. 



100 THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 

" The Sagas, although composed by natives of Ice- 
land, are properly Norwegian literature. The events, 
persons, manners, language, belong to Norioay; and they 
are productions which, like the works of Homer, of 
Shakespeare, and of Scott, are strongly stamped with 
nationality of character and incident. 

"A portion of that attention, which has exhausted 
classic mythology, and which has too long dwelt in the 
Pantheons of Greece and Rome, and is wearied with 
fruitless efforts to learn something more, where, perhaps, 
nothing more is to be learned, may very profitably, and 
very successfully, be directed to the vast field of Gothic 
research. For we are Goths and the descendants of 
Goths — 

" 'The men, 

Of earth's best blood, of titles manifold.' 

And it well becomes us to ask, wliat has Zeus to do with 
the Brocken, Apollo with Effersburg, or Poseidon with 
the Northern Sea ? The gods of our fathers were neither 
Jupiter, nor Saturn, nor Mercury, but Odin, Brage, or 
Eger. If we marvel at the pictures of heathen divinities 
as painted by classical hands, let us not forget that our 
ancestors had deities of their own — gods as mighty in 
their attributes, as refined in their tastes, as heroic in 
their doings, as the gods worshiped in the Parthenon or 
talked about in the forum." 

M. Mallet says : " History has not recorded the 
annals of a people who have occasioned greater, more 
sudden, or more numerous revolutions in Europe than 
the Scandinavians, or whose antiquities, at the same 
time, are so little known. Had, indeed, their emigra- 



THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 101 

tions been only like those sudden torrents of which nil 
traces and remembrance are soon effaced, the indifference 
that has been shown to them would have been suffi- 
ciently justified by the barbarism they have been ap- 
proached with. But. during those general inundations, 
the face of Europe underwent so total a change, and 
during the confusion they occasioned, such different 
establishments took place ; new societies were formed, 
animated so entirely by the new spirit, that the history 
of our own manners and institutions ought necessarily 
to ascend back, and even dwell a considerable time upon 
a period which discovers to us their chief origin and 
source. 

" But I ought not barely to assert this. Permit me 
to support the assertions by proof. For this purpose 
let us briefly run over all the different revolutions which 
this part of the world underwent during the long course 
of ages which its history comprehends, in order to see 
what share the nations of the North have had in pro- 
ducing them. If we recur back to the remotest times, 
we observe a nation issuing step by step from the forests 
of Scythia, incessantly increasing and dividing to take 
possession of the uncultivated countries which it met 
with in its progress. Very soon after, we see the same 
people, like a tree full of vigor, extending long branches 
over all Europe ; we see them also carrying with them 
wherever they came, from the borders of the Black Sea 
to the extremities of Spain, of Sicily, and of Greece, a 
religion simple and martial as themselves, a form of 
government dictated by good sense and liberty, a restless 
unconquered spirit, apt to take fire at the very mention 
of subjection and constraint, and a ferocious courage 



102 THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 

nourished by a savage and vagabond life. While the 
gentleness of the climate softened imperceptibly the fero- 
city of those who settled in the South, colonies of Egyp- 
tians and Phenicians mixing with them upon the coasts 
of Greece, and thence passing over to those of Italy, 
taught them at last to live in cities, to cultivate letters, 
arts and commerce. Thus their opinions, their customs 
and genius, were blended together, and new states were 
formed upon new plans. Rome, in the meantime, arose 
and at length carried all before her. In proportion as 
she increased in grandeur, she forgot her ancient man- 
ners, and destroyed, among the nations whom she over- 
powered, the original spirit with which they were ani- 
mated. But this spirit continued unaltered in the colder 
countries of Europe, and maintained itself there like the 
independency of the inhabitants. Scarce could fifteen 
or sixteen centuries produce there any change in that 
spirit. There it renewed itself incessantly ; for, during 
the whole of that long interval, new adventurers issuing 
continually from the original inexhaustible country, 
trod upon the heels of their fathers toward the north, 
and, being in their turn succeeded by new troops of 
followers, they pushed one another forward like the 
waves of the sea. The northern countries, thus over- 
stocked, and unable any longer to contain such restless 
inhabitants, equally greedy of glory and jilunder, dis- 
charged at length upon the Eoman Empire the weight 
that oppressed them. The barriers of the empire, ill 
defended by a people whom prosperity had enervated, 
were borne down on all sides by torrents of victorious 
armies. We then see the conquerors introducing, among 
the nations they vanquished, viz., into the very bosom 



THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 103 

of slavery and sloth, that spirit of independence and 
equality, that elevation of soul, that taste for rural and 
military life, which both the one and the other had 
originally derived from the same common source, but 
which were then among the Romans breathing their last. 
Dispositions and principles so opposite, struggled long 
with forces sufficiently equal, but they united in the end, 
they coalesced together, and from their coalition sprung 
those principles and that spirit which governed after- 
ward almost all the states of Europe, and which, not- 
withstanding the differences of climate, of religion, and 
particular accidents, do visibly reign in them, and retain, 
to this day, more or less, the traces of their first common 
origin. 

" It is easy to see, from this short sketch, how greatly 
the nations of the earth have influenced the different 
fates of Europe ; and if it be worth while to trace its 
revolutions to their causes; — if the illustration of its 
institutions, of its police, of its customs, of its manners, 
of its laws, be a subject of useful and interesting inquiry, 
it must be allowed that the antiquities of the North, 
that is to say, everything which tends to make us ac- 
quainted with its ancient inhabitants, merits a share in 
the attention of thinking men. But to render this 
obvious by a particular example : is it not well known 
that the most flourishing and celebrated states of Europe 
owe originally to the northern nations whatever liberty 
they now enjoy, either in their constitution or in the 
spirit of their government ? Eor although the Gothic 
form of government has been almost everywhere altered 
or abolished, have we not retained, in most things, the 
opinions, the customs, the manners which that govern- 



104 THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 

ment had a tendency to produce ? Is not this, in fact, 
the principal source of that courage, of that aversion to 
slavery, of that empire of honor which characterized in 
general the European nations; and of that moderation, 
of that easiness of access, and peculiar attention to the 
rights of humanity, which so happily distinguish our 
sovereigns from the inaccessible and superb tyrants of 
Asia ? The immense extent of the Eoman Empire had 
rendered its constitution so despotic and military, many 
of its emperors were such ferocious monsters, its senate 
was become so mean-spirited and vile, that all elevation 
of sentiment, everything that was noble aud manly, 
seems to have been forever banished from their hearts 
and minds; insomuch that if all Europe had received 
the yoke of Rome in this her state of debasement, this 
fine part of the world reduced to the inglorious con- 
dition of the rest could not have avoided falling into 
that kind of barbarity, which is of all others the most 
incurable; as, by making as many slaves as there are 
men, it degrades them so low as not to leave them even 
a thought or desire of bettering their condition. But 
nature has long prepared a remedy for such great evils, 
in that unsubmitting, unconquerable spirit with which 
she has inspired the people of the North; and thus she 
made amends to the human race for all the calamities 
which, in other respects, the inroads of these nations 
and the overthrow of the Roman Empire produced. 

"The great prerogative of Scandinavia (says the ad- 
mirable author of the Spirit of Laws*), and what ought 
to recommend its inhabitants beyond every people upon 
earth, is, that they afforded the great resource to the 

* Baron cle Montesquieu (L'Esprit de Lois). 



THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 105 

liberty of Europe, that is, to almost all the liberty that 
is among men. The Goth Jornande, adds he, calls the 
North of Europe the forge of mankind. I should rather 
call it the forge of those instruments which broke the 
fetters manufactured in the South. It was there those 
valiant nations were bred who left their native climes to 
destroy tyrants and slaves, and so to teach men that 
nature having made them equal, no reason could be 
assigned for their becoming dependent but their mutual 
happiness." 

H. W. Longfellow is an enthusiastic admirer of the 
Scandinavian languages. Of the Icelandic he" says: 
" The Icelandic is as remarkable as the Anglo-Saxon 'for 
its abruptness, its obscurity and the boldness of its 
metaphors. Poets are called Songsmiths; — poetry, the 
Language of the Gods; — gold, the Daylight of Dwarfs; 
— the heavens, the Scull of Ymer; — the rainbow, the 
Bridge of the Gods ; — a battle, a Bath of Blood, the Hail 
of Odin, the Meeting of Shields ; — the tongue, the Sword 
of Words ; — a river, the Sweat of Earth, the Blood of the 
Valleys; — arrows, the Daughters of Misfortune, the 
Hailstones of Helmets; — the earth, the Vessel that 
floats on the Ages ; — '■ the sea, the Field of Pirates ; — 
a ship, the Skate of Pirates, the Horse of the Waves. 
The ancient Skald (Bard) smote the strings of his harp 
with as bold a hand as the Berserk smote his foe. When 
heroes fell in battle he sang to them in his Drapa, or 
death-song, that they had gone to drink 'divine mead 
in the secure and tranquil palaces of the gods,' in that 
Valhalla upon whose walls stood the watchman Heim- 
dal, whose ear was so acute that he could hear the grass 



106 THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 

grow in the meadows of earth, and the wool on the 
backs of sheep. He lived in a credulous age, in the 
dim twilight of the past. He was 

' The sky-lark in the dawn of years. 
The poet of the morn.' 

In the vast solitudes around him, the heart of Nature 
beat against his own. From the midnight gloom of 
groves, the deep-voiced pines answered the deeper- 
voiced and neighboring sea. To his ear, these were not 
the 'voices of dead, but living things. Demons rode the 
ocean like a weary steed, and the gigantic pines flapped 
their sounding wings to smite the spirit of the storm. 

"Still wilder and fiercer were these influences of 
Nature in desolate Iceland, than on the mainland of 
Scandinavia. Fields of lava, icebergs, geysers and vol- 
canoes were familiar sights. When the long winter 
came, and the snowy Heckla roared through the sunless 
air, and the flames of the Northern Aurora flashed along 
the sky, like phantoms from Valhalla, the soul of the 
poet was filled with images of terror and dismay. He 
bewailed the death of Baldur, the sun ; and saw in each 
eclipse the horrid form of the wolf, Maanegarm, who 
swallowed the moon and stained the sky with blood." 

Professor W. Fiske, of Cornell University, who is 
undoubtedly the most learned northern scholar in this 
country, who has spent several years in the Scandinavian 
countries, and who is an enthusiastic admirer of Iceland 
and its Sagas, has sent me the following lines for inser- 
tion in this appendix : 

" It is not necessary to dwell on the value of Icelandic 
to those who desire to investigate the early history of the 



THK SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 107 

Teutonic race. The religious belief of our remote an- 
cestors, and very many of their primitive legal and social 
customs, some of which still influence the daily life of 
the people, find their clearest and often their only eluci- 
dation in the so-called Eddie and Shaldic lays, and in the 
Sagas. The same writings form the sole sources of 
Scandinavian history before the fourteenth century, and 
they not infrequently shed a welcome ray on the obscure 
annals of the British Islands, and of several continental 
nations. They furnish, moreover, an almost unique ex- 
ample of a modern literature which is completely indige- 
nous. The old Icelandic literature, which Mobius truly 
characterizes as 'ein Phiinomen vom Standpunkte der 
allgemeinen Cultur und Literaturgeschichte,' and be- 
side which the literatures of all the other early Teutonic 
dialects — Gothic, Old High German, Saxon, Frisian, 
and Anglo-Saxon — are as a drop to a bucket of water, 
developed itself out of the actual life of the people under 
little or no extraneous influence. In this respect it de- 
serves the careful study of every student of letters. For 
the English-speaking races especially there is nowhere, 
so near home, a field promising to the scholar so rich 
a harvest. The few translations, or attempted transla- 
tions, which are to be found in English, give merely 
a faint idea of the treasures of antique wisdom and 
sublime poetry which exist in the Eddie lays, or of the 
quaint simplicity, dramatic action, and striking realism 
which characterize the historical Sagas. ISTor is the 
modern literature of the language, with its rich and 
abundant stores of folk-lore, unworthy of regard." 

BENJAMiiq- LossiNG says I "It is back to the Nor- 
wegian Vikings we must look for the hardiest elements 
of progress in the United States." 



108 THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 

B. F. De Costa. — " Let us remember that in vindi- 
cating the Northmen we honor those who not only give 
us the first knowledge possessed of the American conti- 
nent, but to whom we are indebted for much besides that 
we esteem valuable. For we fable in a great measure 
when we speak of our Saxon inheritance ; it is rather from 
the Northmen that we have derived our vital energy, our 
freedom of thought, and, in a measure that we do not yet 
suspect, our strength of speech. Yet, happily, the people 
are fast becoming conscious of their indebtedness ; so that 
it is to be hoped that the time is not far distant when 
the Northmen may be recognized in their right social, 
political and literary characters, and at the same time, 
as navigators, assume their true position in the Pre-Co- 
lumbian Discovery of America. 

"The twelfth century Avas an era of great literary 
activity in Iceland, and the century following showed 
the same zeal. Finally Iceland possessed a body of prose 
literature superior in quantity and value to that of any 
other modern nation of its time. Indeed, the natives of 
Europe, at this period, had no prose literature in any 
modern language spoken by the people. 

" Yet while other nations were without a literature, 
the intellect of Iceland was in active exercise and works 
were produced like the Eddas and Heimskiungla, — 
works which, being inspired by a lofty genius, will rank 
with the writings of Homer and Herodotus while time 
itself endures." 

Says Sir Edmu]S"D Head, in regard to the Norwegian 
literature of the tivelfth century : " No doubt there were 
translations in Anglo-Saxon from the Latin, by Alfred, 



THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 109 

of an earlier date, but there was in truth no vernacular 
literature. I cannot name," he says, " any work in high 
or low German prose which can be carried back to this 
period. In France, prose writing cannot be said to have 
begun before the time of Villehardouin (1204) and Join- 
ville (1202) ; Castilian prose certainly did not begin before 
the time of Alfonso X (1252); Don Juan Manvel, the 
author Conde Liicanor, was not born till 1282. The 
Cronica General de Esjoana was not composed till at 
least the middle of the thirteenth century. About the 
same time the language of Italy was acquiring that soft- 
ness and strength which were destined to appear so con- 
spicuously in the prose of Boccaccio and the writers of 
the next century. 

" Of course there was more or less poetry, yet poetry 
is something that is early developed among the rudest 
nations, while good 2^t'0se tells that a people have become 
highly advanced in mental culture." 

William and Mary Howitt. — " There is nothing 
besides the Bible, which sits in a divine tranquillity of 
unapproachable nobility, like a King of Kings amongst 
all other books, and the poem of Homer itself, which can 
compare in all the elements of greatness with the Edda. 
There is a loftiness of stature and a growth of muscle 
about it which no poets of the same race have ever since 
reached. The obscurity which hangs over some parts of 
it, like the deep shadows crouching mid the ruins of the 
past, is probably the result of dilapidations ; but, amid 
this, stand forth the boldest masses of intellectual ma- 
sonry. We are astonished at the wisdom which is shaped 
into maxims, and at the tempestuous strength of passions 



110 THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 

to which m11 modern emotions appear puny and con- 
strained. Amid the bright sunlight of a far-off time, 
surrounded by the densest shadows of forgotten ages, 
we come at once into the midst of gods and heroes, god- 
desses and fair women, giants and dwarfs, moving about 
in a world of wonderful construction, unlike any other 
worlds or creations which God has founded or man 
has imagined, but still beautiful beyond conception. 

"The Icelandic poems have no parallel in all the 
treasures of ancient literature. They are the expressions 
of the souls of poets existing in the primeval and un- 
effeminated earth. They are limnings of men and women 
of godlike beauty and endowments, full of the vigor of 
simple but impetuous natures. There are gigantic pro- 
portions about them. There are great and overwhelming 
tragedies in them, to which those of Greece only present 
any parallels. 

'" The Edda is a structure of that grandeur and im- 
portance that it deserves to be far better known to us 
generally than it is. The spirit in it is sublime and 
colossal." 

Pliny Miles. — "The literary history of Iceland in 
the early ages of the Republic is of a most interesting 
character. When we consider the limited population of 
the country, and the many disadvantages under which 
they labored, their literature is the most remarkable on 
record. The old Icelanders, from the tenth to the six- 
teenth century, through a period of the history of the 
world when little intellectual light beamed from the sur- 
rounding nations, were as devoted and ardent workers in 
the fields of history and poetry as any community in the 



THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. Ill 

world under the most favorable circumstances. Spring- 
ing from the Old Norse or Norwegian stock, they carried 
the language and habits of their ancestors with them to 
their highland home. Though a very large number of 
our English words are derived direct from the Icelandic, 
yet the most learned and indefatigable of our lexicog- 
raphers, both in England and America, have acknowl- 
edged their ignorance of this language. 

" The Eddas abound in mythological machinery to 
an extent quite equal to the writings of Homer and 
Virgil." 

The learned German writer Schlegel, in his " Es- 
thetics and Miscellaneous Works," says : " If any monu- 
ment of the primitive northern world deserves a place 
amongst the earlier remains of the South, the Icelandic 
Edda must be deemed worthy of that distinction. The 
spiritual veneration for Nature, to which the sensual 
Greek was an entire stranger, gushes forth in the mys- 
terious language and prophetic traditions of the North- 
ern Edda with a full tide of enthusiasm and inspiration 
sufficient to endure for centuries, and to supply a whole 
race of future bards and poets with a precious and ani- 
mating elixir. The vivid delineations, the rich, glowing- 
abundance and animation of the Homeric pictures of 
the world, are not more decidedly superior to the misty 
scenes and shadowy forms of Ossian, than the Northern 
Edda is in its suMimity to the works of Hesiod." 

Prof. Dr. Deitrich asserts '' that the Scandinavian 
literature is extraordinarily rich in all kinds of writings." 

Hon. George P. Marsh. — "It must suffice to re- 
mark that, in the opinion of those most competent to 



112 THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 

judge, the Iceltindic literature has never been surpassed, 
if equaled, in all that gives value to that portion of his- 
tory which consists of spirited delineations of character 
and faithful and lively pictures of events among nations 
in a rude state of society. 

" That the study of the Old Northern tongue may 
have an important bearing on English grammar and 
etymology, will be obvious, when it is known that the 
Icelandic is most closely allied to the Anglo-Saxon, of 
which so few monuments are extant ; and a slight 
examination of its structure and remarkable syntactical 
character will satisfy the reader that it may well deserve 
the attention of the philologist." 

The excellent writer, Charles L. Brace, in speak- 
ing of Iceland, says: ".The Congress, or 'Althing,' of 
the Icelanders, had many of the best political features 
which have distinguished parliamentary government in 
all branches of the Teutonic race since. Every free- 
holder voted in it, and its decisions governed all inferior 
courts. It tried the lesser magistrates, and chose the 
presiding officers of the colony. 

"To this remote island (Iceland) came, too, that re- 
markable profession, who were at once the poets, his- 
torians, genealogists and moralists of the Norse race, 
the Skalds. These men, before writing was much in 
use, handed down by memory, in familiar and often 
alliterative poetry, the names and deeds of the brave 
Norsemen, their victories on every coast of Europe, 
their histories and passions, and wild deaths, their 
family ties, and the boundaries of their possessions, 
their adventures and voyages, and even their law and 



THE SCANDINAYIAJST LANGUAGES. 113 

their mythology. In fact, all that history and legal doc- 
uments, and genealogical records and poetry transmit 
now, was handed down by these bards of the Norsemen. 
Iceland became their peculiar center and home. Here, 
in bold and vivid language, they recorded in works, 
which posterity will never let die, the achievements of 
the Vikings, the conquest of almost every people in 
Europe hy these vigorous pirates; their wild ventures, 
their contempt of pain and death, their absolute joy in 
danger, combat and difficulty. In these, the oldest re- 
cords of our (i. e., the Americans') forefathers, will be 
found even among these wild rovers the respect for law 
which has characterized every branch of the Teutonic 
race since; here, and not in the Swiss cantons, is the 
leyinning of Parliament and Congress ; here, and not 
luith the Anglo-Saxons, is the foundation of trial ly jury; 
and here, among their most ungoverned luassail, is that 
high revere7ice for tuoman, ivhicli has again come forth hy 
inheritance among the Anglo-Norse Americans. The 
ancestors (at least morally) of Ealeigh and Nelson, and 
Kane and Farragut, appear in these records, among 
these sea-rovers, whose passion was danger and venture 
on the waters. Here, too, among such men as the 
^ Raven Floki,' is the prototype of those American 
pioneers who follow the wild birds into pathless wilder- 
nesses to found new republics. And it is the Norse 
''udaV property, not the European feudal property, 
lohich is the model for the American descendants of the 
ancient Norsem.an. 

" In these Icelandic Sagas, too, is portrayed the deep 
moral sentiment which characterizes the most ancient 
mythology of the Teutonic races. Here we have no 
5* 



114 THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 

dissolute Pantheon, with gods revelling eternally in 
earthly vices, and the evils and wrongs of humanity 
continued forever. Even the ghosts of the Northmen 
have the muscle of the race ; they are no pale shadows 
flitting through the Orcus. The dead fight and eat with 
the vigor of the living. But there comes a dread time 
when destiny overtakes all, both human and divine 
beings, and the universe with its evil and wrong musu 
perish (Ragnarokr). Yet even the crack of doom finds 
not the Norsemen timid or fearing. Gods and men die 
in the heat of the conflict ; and there survives alone, 
Baldur, the ' God of Love,' who shall create a new 
heaven and a new earth. 

" It is from Iceland that we get the wonderful poetic 
and mythologic collections of the Elder and Younger 
Eddas. In this remote island the original Norse lan- 
guage was preserved more purely than it was in Norway 
or Denmark, and the Icelandic literature shed a flood of 
light over a dark and barbarous age. Even now the 
modern Icelanders can read or repeat their most ancient 
Sagas with but little change of dialect. 

'' But to an American, one of the most interesting 
gifts of Iceland to the world is the record of the dis- 
covery of Northern America by Icelandic rovers (?) near 
the year 1000. 

"We think few scholars can carefully read these Sagas, 
and the accompanying in regard to Greenland, without 
a conviction that the Icelandic and Norwegian Vikings 
did at that early period discover and land on the coast 
of our eastern States. * * •- The shortest winter 
day is stated with such precision as to fix the lati- 
tude near the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. 



THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 115 

* * * Iceland, ihen, iuis the honor of having discovered 
America. 

*'That volcanic-raised island, with its mountains of 
ice and valleys of lava and ashes, has played no mean 
part in the world's history." — Christian Union^ July 15, 
187J{.. 

The famous George Stephens^ in his elaborate work 
on "Runic Monuments," having discussed the impor- 
tance of studying the Scandinavian languages in order 
that many of our fine old roots may again creep into 
circulation, says : " Let us (the English) study the Scan- 
dinavian languages, and ennoble and restore our mother 
tongue. Let the Scandinavians study Old English as 
well as their own ancient records, give up mere provincial 
views, and melt their various dialects into one shining, 
rich, sweet and manly speech, as we have done in Eng- 
land. Their High Northern shall then live forever, the 
home language of eight millions of hardy freemen, our 
brothers in the east sea, our Warings and Guardsmen 
against the grasping clutches of the modern Hun and 
the modern Vandal. The time may come when tiie 
kingdom of Canute may be restored in a nobler shape, 
when the bands of Sea-kings shall rally round one 
Northern Union standard, when one scejjter shall sway 
the seas and coasts of our forefathers from the Thames 
to the North Cape, from Finland to the Eider. 

" We have watered our mother tongue long enough 
with bastard Latin ; let us now brace and steel it with 
the life-water of our own sweet and soft and rich and 
shining and clear ringing and manly and world-ranging, 
ever dearest English ! " 



116 THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 

In his preface to his Icelandic grammar, Dr. G. W. 
Dasent says : " Putting aside the study of Old Norse 
for the sake of its magnificent literature, and consider- 
ing it merely as an accessory help for the English student, 
we shall find it of immense advantage, not only in trac- 
ing the rise of words and idioms, but still more in clear- 
ing up many dark points in our early history; in fact, 
so highly do I value it in this respect, that I cannot 
imagine it possible to write a satisfactory history of the 
Anglo-Saxon period without a thorough knowledge of 
the Old Norse literature." 

Dr. Dasent, in his introduction to Oleasby's and 
Vigfusson's Icelandic Dictionary, says of Iceland : " No 
other country in Europe possesses an ancient vernacular 
to be compared with this." And again: "Whether in 
a literary or in a philological point of view, no literature 
in Europe in the middle ages can compete in interest 
with that of Iceland. It is not certainly in forma loau- 
inris that she appears at the tribunal of learning." In 
another place he remarks : " In it (the Dictionary) the 
English student now possesses a key to that rich store of 
knowledge which the early literature of Iceland possesses. 
He may read the Eddas and Sagas, which contain sources 
of delight and treasures of learning such as no other 
language but that of Iceland possesses." 

The distinguished German scholar, Ettmuller, in 
comparing the literature of the Anglo-Saxons with that 
of the Icelanders, says: "Neither the Goths, nor the 
Germans, nor the French, can be compared with the 
Anglo-Saxons in the cultivation of letters. By the Scan- 
dinavians alone, they are not only equaled, but also sur- 



THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES, 117 

passed in literature." And again : " If the Scandinavians 
excel in lyric poetry, the Anglo-Saxons can boast of their 
epic poetry. If the famous island in the remote North- 
ern Sea applied itself with distinguished honor to his- 
torical studies, the isle of the Anglo-Saxons is especially 
entitled to praise from the fact that it produced orators, 
who, considering the time in which they lived, were de- 
cidedly excellent." 

Max Muller, in his " Science of Language," says : 
"There is a third stream of Teutonic speech, which it 
would be impossible to place in any but a co-ordinate 
position with regard to Gothic, Low and High German. 
This is the Scandinavian branch." 

In Wheaton's "History of the Northmen," we find 
the following passages: "The Icelanders cherished and 
cultivated the language and literature of their ancestors 
with remarkable success. * * * j^ Iceland an 
independent literature grew up, flourished, and was 
brought to a certain degree of perfection before the re- 
vival of learning in the south of EuropeP 

Robert Buchanan, the eminent Enghsh writer, in 
reviewing the modern Scandinavian literature, says: 
" While German literature darkens under the malignant 
star of Deutschthum, while French art, sickening of its 
long disease, crawls like a leper through the light and 
wholesome world, while all over the European continent 
one wan influence or another asserts its despair-engen- 
dering sway over books and men, whither shall a be- 
wildered student fly for one deep breath of pure air and 
wholesome ozone? Goethe and Heine have sung their 



118 THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 

best — and worst ; Alfred de Miisset is dead, and Victor 
Hugo is turned politician. Grillparzer is still a mystery, 
thanks partly to the darkening medium of Carlyle's 
hostile criticism. From the ashes of Teutonic tran- 
scendentalism rises Wagner like a Phoenix, — a bird too 
uncommon for ordinary comprehension, but to all in- 
tents and purposes an anomaly at best. One tires of 
anomalies, one sickens of politics, one shudders at the 
petticoat literature first created at Weimar; and looking 
east and west, ranging with a true invalid's hunger the 
literary horizon, one searches for something more natu- 
ral, for some form of indigenous and unadorned love- 
liness, wherewith to fleet the time pleasantly, as they 
did in the golden world. 

" That something may be found without traveling 
very far. Turn northward, in the footsteps of Teufels- 
drochk, traversing the great valleys of Scandinavia, and 
not halting until, like the philosopher, you look upon 
'that slowly heaving Polar Ocean, over which in the 
utmost north the great sun hangs low.' Quiet and peace- 
ful lies Norway yet as in the world's morning. The 
flocks of summer tourists alight upon her shores, and 
scatter themselves to their numberless stations, without 
disturbing the peaceful serenity of her social life. * * * 
The government is a virtual democracy, such as would 
gladden the heart of Gambetta, the Swedish monarch's 
rule over Norway being merely titular. There are no 
hereditary nobles. There is no 'gag' on the press. 
Science and poetry alike flourish on this free soil. The 
science is grand as Nature herself, cosmic as well as 
microscopic. The poetry is fresh, light, and pellucid, 
worthy of the race, and altogether free from Parisian 
taint." 



THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES. 119 

" Bjokn-stjerne Bjornson",* one of the most emi- 
nent of living Norwegian authors, is something more 
than even the finest pastoral taleteller of this generation. 
He is a dramatist of extraordinary power. He does not 
possess the power of imaginative fancy shown by Werge- 
landf (in such pieces as Jan van Huysums Blomster- 
styhhe), nor Welhaven'sJ refinement of phrase, nor the 
wild, melodious abandon of his greatest rival, the author 
of Peer Gyut ;\ but, to my thinking at least, he stands 
as a poet in a far higher rank than any of these writers. 

" In more than one respect, particularly in the loose, 
disjointed structure of the piece, ^Sigurd Slemie^ re- 
minds one of Goethe's ' Goetz^ but it deals with materials 
far harder to assimilate, and is on the whole a finer 
picture of romantic manners. Audhild (a prominent 
character in 'Sigurd Slembe') is a creation worthy of 
Goethe at his best; worthy, in my opinion, to rank with 
Cla^rchen, Marguerite and Mignon as a masterpiece of 
delicate characterization. And here I may observe, inci- 
dentally, that Bjornson excels in his pictures of delicate 

* Bjornstjerne Bjornson was born in 1832; has written several novels, 
dramas and epic poems. '• Sigurd Slembe " is a drama, published in 1863, of 
which Robert Buchanan says: "It is, besides being a masterpiece by its 
author, a drama of which any living European author might be justly proud." 
Several of his novels, including "Arne," ''A Happy Boy,'' ''The Fisher- 
maiden." have been translated into English. 

t Henrik Arnold Wergeland was born in 1808, and died in 1845. He is 
the Byron of the North. His works comprise nine ponderous volumes. He 
excelled in lyrics. 

X John Sebastian Welhaven, born in 1807. died in 1873. Remarkable for 
the elegance and chasteness of his style. No poet has more beautifully and 
correctly described the natural scenery of Norway. 

II The author of ''Peer Gyut''' is Henrik Ibsen, born in 1828. Was en- 
gaged by Ole Bull as instructor at the theatre in Bergen, which position he 
occupied six years. He has written several dramatic works, chiefly of a 
polemic and exceedingly satirical nature. Many of his countrymen prefer 
Ibsen to Bjornson. His last work is '•• Keiser og GalUoeer.'''' 



120 THE SCANDIN AVIAN LANGUAGES. 

feminine types, — a proof, if proof were wanting, that he 
is worthy to take rank with the highest class of poetic 
creators." 

I might add to the above quotations from Max Miil- 
ler, tHe brothers Grimm and many other eminent writers ; 
but in the first place this article is long enough, and in 
the next place the works of the last named authors are 
accessible to all who may wish to investigate this sub- 
ject further. My object has been to show that, in the 
opinion of those who have studied the subject, the North 
has a history, language and literature deserving and 
amply rewarding some attention from American stu- 
dents. Of the good or ill performance of this task the 
reader, whom I earnestly request carefully to consider 
the contents of these pages, must be the judge. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

OF THE 

PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 



By PAUL BARRON WATSOK 



These notes were begun as an introduction to a tliesis prepared under 
Dr. Emerton, in one of the history courses at HaYvard College. The present 
essay is intended as a complete bibliography of those claims to the discovery 
of America before Columbus which are based upon documentary evidence. 
These claims are nine in number — Chinese (499), Northmen (1000-1347), 
Arabs (about 1125), Welsh (1170), Venetians (1380), Portuguese (1463), Poles 
(1476), Martin Behaim (1483), and Cousin of Dieppe (1488). The order of 
arrangement is strictly chronological. The following abbreviations have 
been used: A: Augustus; B: Benjamin; C: Charles; D: David; E: Edward; 
F: Frederick; G: George; H: Henry; I: Isaac; J: John; K: Karl: L: Louis; 
M : Mark ; N : Nicholas ; O : Otto ; P : Peter ; R : Richard ; S : Samuel ; T : Thom- 
as; W: William; and for the corresponding forms of these names in other 
languages. 3 : 71 means that vol. 3, p. 71. of the work mentioned relates to the 
present subject. The following libraries have been consulted, and in the fol- 
lowing order: Harvard College Library (H.), Boston Public Library (BP.), 
Boston Athemeum (BA.), Carter -Brown Library (GB.), British Museum (BJU.) 
and Bibliotheque Nationale (Blf.) 



I. DISCOVERY BY THE CHINESE. 

Institut de France. Academie Eoyale des Inscriptions et Belles- 
Letires. Memoires de litterature. Paris, 1761. 28 : 506-525. ^P. 
Recherches siir les navigations des Chinois du c6te de I'Amerique, 
par M. de Guignes. 

Says that he finds in the Chinese histories mention made of long voyages, 
which seem to him to be to portions of America. He has therefore collected 
them in this article. He believes that they visited the parts around California 
and Mexico on more than one occasion. 

121 



122 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 

Nouvelles annales des voyages. Paris. 1831. 2d ser., 21: 
53-68. H. Recherelies sur le pays de Fou Sang- ; par H : J. von 
Klaproth. 

Gives the story of the Chinese priest in full, with a chart. He thinks it 
impossible that Fou Sang was a part of America, and gives his reasons at con- 
siderable length. 

Dupaix, Guillaume. Antiquites mexicaines. Paris, 1834. 1 : 
119-136. BA. Recherches sur les antiquites de I'Amerique du 
Xord et de I'Ainerique du Sud, par D : Bailie Warden. 

A long discussion of the Chinese claim. Favorable. 

Nipon o dai itsi ran. [A French translation, by I: Tetsingh, 
under the title of "Annales des empereurs du Japon," with an 
"Aper9ii de I'histoire mythologique du Japon" by H: Julius von 
Klaproth. Paris, 1834. pp. iv-ix. ^.] 

Klaproth here discusses quite fully the claim of De Giiignes, and thinks 
that there is no truth in the story. 

Humboldt, F: H: Alexander von. Examen critique de I'his- 
toire de la geographic du nouveau continent. Paris, 1837. 2 : 62- 
84. H. 

Humboldt discusses very completely the question of the discovery of 
America by the Chinese. He grants that the monuments, divisions of time 
and several myths of the former inhabitants of America offer a striking anal- 
ogy to the customs of eastern Asia, but yet asserts that De Guignes is mis- 
taken in announcing that the Chinese have known of America since the fifth 
century of our era. He refers, in support of his position, to the article by 
Klaproth. 

Neumann, F: K: (A tract %vi'itten in 1841, in German, on the 
discovery of America.) [An English translation, by C: G. Leland, 
published in "The Knickerbocker," New York, 1850, 36:301-320, 
under the title of 'California and Mexico in the fifth century." H.^ 

Makes several remarks about America in the fifth century, taking as his 
authorities the Chinese histories which contain references to lands which he 
thinks to be a part of America. This book contains, among other things, the 
account of Hoei-Shin, in which the author fully believes. 

Colombo, Cristoforo. Select letters; edited by R: H: Major. 
(Hakluyt Society.) London, 1847. pp. xi-xii. H. 

The introduction, by R : H : Major, gives the account of the Chinese priest, 
with the names of the chief writers upon the subject. 

Rivero, Mariano E:, and Tschudi, J: Jakob von. Peruvian 
antiquities. [An English translation. N.Y., 1853. pp. 16-17. BP:] 
Speaks of the Chinese claim, which he regards as probable. 

Domenech, Em., Vahhe. Seven vears' residence in the great 
deserts of Xorth America. London, ^1860. 1 : 50-52. BP. 



PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 123 



Speaks of the claim of the Chinese, and says that Fusang has been proved 
by Paravey to be Mexico. 

Brasseur de Bourbourg, C: Etienne, Vahhe. Popol Vuh. Paris, 
1861. pp. xxxix-xli. H. 
Favorable. 

Continental monthly. N.Y. and Boston, 1862, April, pp. 
391-392, and May, pp. 530-534. //. The Chinese discovery of 
Mexico in the fifth century, by C: G. Leland. 

Gives the account of the Buddhist priest, and expresses the opinion that 
the story is true, and that he visited Mexico. 

Revue archeologique. Paris, 1864^65. n.s.. 10: 188-201, 
370-385 ; 11 : 42-49, 273-292. H. 

In this article, by Gustave d'Eichtbal, the question of the Chinese is dis- 
cussed very fully. In the first part the article of De Guignes, which d'Eichthal 
considers conclusive, is analyzed; the second treats of the manner in which 
Buddhism is modified and propagated; the third gives a resume' of the obser- 
vations of Humboldt on the civilization of Asia and America; and the fourth 
treats of the presence of Buddhism among the North American Indians. 

Gentleman's magazine. London, 1869. n.s., 8: 333-335. //. 

The discovery of America by the Chinese, by C : Welles. 

Raises the question whether the Chinese did not discover America before 
Columbus. He gives the account of Hoei'-Shin, v.hich he seems to believe. 
This article was reprinted in the "Historical magazine," Morrisania, 1809, 2d 
s., Il:5i20-221. 

Notes and queries on China and Japan. Hong Kong, 
1869-70. BP. 

Y. J. N., 3: 58, says he has seen in a home paper that Neumann has found 
that some Buddhist priests have discovered America. The writer begs to 
submit it to further enquiry. Theos. Sampson, 3 : 78-79, attempts to show that 
the Buddhist priest did not discover America. S., 4: 19, says that M. Leon de 
Rosny asserts that in Fusang deer and copper are found. The writer argues 
from this that Fusang must be in the Arctic regions of America. 

Chinese recorder and missionary journal. Fouehow, Oct., 
1870. Fusang, or who discovered America, by E. Bretschneider. //. 

A very learned and exhaustive article favorable to the Chinese claim. 
Reprinted in Leland's "Fusang." 

Rosny, Leon de. Varietes orientales. Paris, 1872. p. 80. //. 
A brief description of Fusang is here given. 

Galaxy. N.Y., 1875. 20:512-514. H. Claims to the dis- 
covery of America, by J: T. Short. 

Discusses at considerable length the Chinese claim, and adds, "We are 
more disposed to give credence to the theory that the Chinese discovered 
America at a very early day thaii to attach much importance to the particular 
account of that discovery by Hoei-Shin.'" 



124 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 

Leland, C : G. Fiisang, or the discovery of America by Chinese 
Buddhist priests in the fifth century. London, 1875. BP. 

Contents. Preface: Memoir of Prof . C: F: Neumann; Narrative of Hoei- 
Shin, with contents by Prof. Neumann: RemarlvS on the text of Prof. Neu- 
mann; Letter from Col. Barclay Kennon on the navigation of the North 
Pacific Ocean; American antiquities, with their relations to the Old World; 
Advocates and opponents of the narrative of Hoei-Shin; Latest discussion of 
Fusang; Appendix; Index. 

The narrative of Hoei-Shin here given is a translation of Neumann's 
work. The letter from Col. Kennon expresses the opinion that the alleged 
voyage of the Buddhist priest is easily practicable. Leland speaks of the 
similarity between the Dakota and Asiatic languages, and thinks this shows 
that the Dakota tribe came originally from Asia. He does not think that the 
Buddhist priest came in contact with the Mound- Builders, but believes that 
he visited Mexico. This book contains a very complete summary of the views 
of different writers. 

Congres International des Americanistes. Compte-rendu 
de la 1*= session. Nancy and Paris, 1875. 1 : 114-163. BP. 

In this article, by Lucien Adam, the question of the Chinese claim is 
treated at considerable length, with the advocates of which claim the writer 
agrees. A map of the route of the Chinese and engravings of some bas-reliefs 
are added. 

Bryant, W: Cullen. and Gay, Sidney Howard. Popular his- 
tory of the United States. N.Y.. 1876. ' 1 : 85-87. ' H. 

Gives the account of the Buddhist priest, referring to Humboldt and 
Leland as his authorities. After discussing briefly the probability that the 
story is true, he says that it is too indefinite. 

Bancroft, Hubert Howe. The native races of the Pacific states 
of North America. N.Y., 1876. 5:33-87. //. 

The account of Hoei-Shin is here given in full, with the authorities upon 
which it rests. The author does not express any opinion on the subject, but 
gives quotations from some of its supporters and opponents. 

Short, .J: T. The North Americans of antiquity. N.Y., 1879. 
pp. 148-151. H. 

Same views as those expressed by the author in the "Galaxy." 1875. 

Williams, S: Wells. Notices of Fu-sang and other countries 
lying east of China, in the Pacific Ocean. New Haven, 1881. 

Unfavorable: written to controvert Leland's publications: contains trans- 
lations from the antiquarian researches of Ma Twan-lin, in the 1.3th and 14th 
centuries, but identifies his "Fu-sang" with the "Loo-choo" Islands rather 
than with America. This article was also published in the "Journal of the 
American Oriental Society," 'v. 11, 1881. 

II. DISCOVERY BY THE NORTHMEN. 

Adamus Brememis. Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontifi- 
cum. Written in 1075. [Published at Hamburg, 1846, in v. 7 of 
Pertz, "Monumenta Germaniae historica," cap. 247. H.'\ 



PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 125 



Says that Sweyn Estrythson, King of Denmark, told him of a land in the 
ocean/called Winland ; that it was so called because vines grew wild there, 
from which an excellent wine was obtained. 

Ordericus Vitalis. Ilistoriae Ecclesiasticae libri tredecim. 
Written about 1140. [An edition, Paris, 1852. 4:29. H.] 

Says that the Orcades and Finland, as well as Iceland, Greenland and 
several other lands, even in Golland, are subject to the king of Norway. This 
Finland is perhaps Vinland. 

Snorri Sturleson. Ileiniskringia. Written in 1215. [An Eng- 
lish translation, with preliminary dissertation, by S : Laing, London, 
1844, under the title of "Tlie Sea Kings of Xorway." 1 : 141-187, 
465; 3:344-861. H.'\ 

Chap. 5 is devoted to the discovery of Greenland and America by the 
Northmen, in which the author fully believes. Two engravings of the Digh- 
ton Rock are added At 1: 4(55, the chronicle says that Leif '-found Vinland 
the Good."' Here Laing remarks: "There are eight chapters here in Per- 
ingskiold's edition of the Heimskringla which relate to the discovery of Vin- 
land, and are taken from the Codex Flatoyensis, but are not in the manuscripts 
of the Heimskringla known to the Danish antiquaries. They are suppo'^ed to 
have been an interpolation in the manuscript which Peringskiold had l)efore 
him, but which is not to be found." In 3:844-361, these eight chapters are 
translated in full. 

Grotius, Hugo. De origine gentium Americanarum disser- 
tatio. Anist., 1642. [An ed. pub. in Petrus Albinus' '•Com- 
mentatio de Unguis peregrinis atque insulis ignotis." Vitebergae, 
1714. p. 39. BM. 

Says he thinks that almost all those people about the Isthmus of Panama 
are descended from the Norwegians ; but it appears to have been merely his 
conjecture. 

Laet, J: de. N'otae ad dissertationem Hugonis Grotii de 
origine gentium Americanarum. Parisiis, 1643. pp. 161-163. H. 

Says that, in 11-21, Erik went in search of the island of Vinland, and died 
in the attempt, and that in 1000 Leif, Erik's son, converted Greenland to 
Christianity. Laet opposes Grotius' opinion that America was peopled by 
the Norwegians, but it does not seem to occur to him that Vinland was a part 
of America. 

Montanus, Arnoldus. De nieuwe en onbekende weereld. 
Amst., 1671. p. 28-31. H. 

Favorable. 

Rudbeck Oif. Atland eller Manheim, Atlantica sive Man- 
hcim. Upsalae, 1689. 1:291-292. B3I. 

Says that Adamus Bremensis is mistaken in asserting the existence of a 
place called Vinland. 

Oampanius, T:, of Holm. Kort beskrifning om provincien 
Nya Swerige uti America. Stockholm, 1702. [English transla- 



126 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 

tiou, under the title of "Description of the Province of New 
Sweden," by P: S. du Ponceau. Phila., 1834. pp. 28-31. B.] 

Gives briefly the account of tlie Northmen, which the autlior is inclined 
to believe. 

Torfaeas, Thorinodiis. Historia Vinhmdiae antiquae. Havniae, 
1705. //. 

Contains a complete history of the discovery of Vinland, as taken from 
MSS. found in the libraries of the North. The author does not attempt to 
identify the places, except that Vinland was in North America. 

Torfaeus, Thormodus. Gronlandia antiqua. Havniae, 1706. 
[An edition, Havniae, 1715. Chap. 3: 16-17. BP.] 

Gives the following extract from Ari:— "Inde colligi potest, id genus 
gentem illic permeasse, quae Vinlandiam incoluit, quam Graenlandi Skrae- 
lingia appellant." 

Mallet, Paul H: Introduction a I'histoire de Dannemarc. 
Copenhagen, 1755. [An English translation, under the title of 
"Northern antiquities," v. 1: ch. 11. //.] 

After discussing at considerable length the discovery of America, he says, 
"•There can be no doubt but that the Norwegian Greenlanders discovered the 
American continent; that the place where they settled was either the country 
of Labrador or Newfoundland, and that their colony subsisted there a good 
while." In an edition by J. A. Blackwell, London, 1847, pp. 24-4-276, the 
"Antiquitates Americana^" has been made use of, and much additional infor- 
mation is given. 

Orantz, D: Historic von Gronland. Barby 1765. [An Eng- 
lish translation, London, 1767. 1:241-257. BP.] 

'' 'Tis probable that those Indians at present about Newfoundland, who 
are so very different in their shape and manner of living from the other 
Americans, may be descended from the Northmen." 

Schoning, Gerhard. Norges Riges historic. Soroe, 1769. 
[An edition published by P: E: Suhra. Kjobenhavn, 1781. 3: 
414-4-23. H.] 

Gives the discovery of Vinland at considerable length, and believes it to 
be a part of America. 

Franklin, B: Letter to Mr. Mather, Julv 7, 1773. {In his 
Works, ed. by Jared Sparks, Boston, 1839. 8: 68-69. H.) 

Says that Kalm, about 2.5 years since, drew up a note of the discovery of 
America by the Northmen, and gave it to him. Franklin adds that " the cir- 
cumstances give the account a great appearance of authenticity." He thinks, 
too, that the country they visited was southward of New England. 

Burnet, James [Lord Monboddo]. Of the origin and progress 
of language. Edin., 1773. [2d ed. Edin. 1774. pp. 590-591, 
note. H. 

Favorable. 



PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 12' 



Robertson, W: History of Aiueriea. London, 1777. 1:438 
-439. //. 

In note xvii, Robertson confesses his inabilitj' to examine the literature 
of the North, and doubts the truth of the story; but thinks, that, if the Nor- 
wegians landed in America at all, they probably did so at Newfoundland. 

Sprengel, Matthias Christian. Geschichte cler Europiler in 
Nordamerika. Leipzig, 1783. pp. 129-136. H. 

Favorable ; thinks they went as far south as North Carolina. 

Filson, J: The discovery, settlement, and present state of 
Kentucky. Wilmington, 1784. pp. 94-95. H. 

Here the author mentions that the Danes are recorded to have discovered 
a land called Vinland; he adds, ''The remains of this colony are probably to 
be found on the coast of Labrador." 

Forstsr, J: Reinholdt. Geschichte der Entdeckungen und 
Schiffahrten im Norden. Frankfurt, 1784. [An English trans- 
lation, under the title of " History of voyages and discoveries in 
the North." London, 1786. pp. 44-88. " ^.] 

Forster gives the account of the Northmen, and thinks that Vinland was 
in Nevv'foundland or on the coast north of the St. Lawrence. 

Pennant, T: Introduction to the Arctic zoology. London, 
1787. [2d ed., London, 1792. pp. 264-265. //.] 

Favorable. 

American musaeum. Phila., 1789. 6: 159-162. H. Ac- 
counts of the discovery of Vinland, or America, by the Iceland- 
ers, in the 1 1 th century, taken from Mallet's Northern antiquities, 
volume 1. 

A translation of a part of the account given by Mallet. It was to have 
been continued, but apparently was not. 

Belknap, Jeremy. American biograiDhy. Boston, 1794. 1 : 
47-58. H. 

Belknap takes his accoiiDt entirely from Ponioppidan, Crantz and Fors- 
ter. His opinion is: " Tiiough we can come to no positive conclusion in a 
question of such antiquity, yet there are many circumstances to coutlrm, and 
none to disprove, the relation given of the voyages of Biron." 

Eggers, H: P: von. Ueber die wahre lage des alten Ostgron- 
lands. Kiel, 1794. pp. 84-96. H. 

Uncertain. 

Fritsch, J: Gottlob. Disputatio historico-geographica in qua 
quaeritur utrum vetcres American! noverint necne. Cur. Regnit., 
1796. pp. 17-21. II. 

Contains a brief account of the discovery of America by the Northmen. 



128 PKE-COLUMBIAX DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 

The author believe.s that the story is true, aud thinks that they landed in 
Canada or Carolina. 

Boucher de la Richarderie, Gilles. Bi))liotlieque universelle 
des voyages. Paris, 1808. 1: 43-51. //. 

Gives a partial bibliography of the discoveries of the Northmen, with a 
brief account of the discovery of Vinland. 

Annales des voyages. Paris, 1810. 10:50-87. H. Tableau 
historique des decouvertes geographiques des Scandinaves on Nor- 
mands, par Malte-Brun. 

In fa^'or of the discovery of America by the Northmen. Contains an 
exact copy of the map of the Zeno brothers, with one showing the discov- 
eries of the Northmen. 

Williamson, Hugh. History of North Carolina. Phila., 1812. 
1:4-8,213-215. //. 

Speaks of the discovery of America by the Northmen as an established 
fact, and gives the account at some length, referring to Mallet and Torfa^ns. 

Pinkerton, J : A general collection of the best and most inter- 
esting voyages and travels in all parts of the world. London, 1814. 
17: xxiii-xxiv. H. 

The Northmen " discovered Vinland, which seems to have been a part of 
Newfoundland." 

McOuUock, James H. Researches on America. Baltimore, 
1816. pp. 8-11. BP. 
Unfavorable. 

Miiller, P: Erasmus. Sagabibliothek. Copenhagen, 1816-20. 
[A German translation of the first part, by Lachmann, Berlin, 
1816, entitled " Sagenbibliothek des skandinavischen Alterthums 
in Ausziigen." pp. 213-215. H. 

Here i? given a svnopsis of the Saga of Erik the Red and Thorfinn Karls- 
efne, which Miiller says is not older than the 14th century. References are 
also given to other Sagas which mention the discovery of Vinland. 

Malte-Brun, Conrad. Precis de la geographic universelle. 
Paris, 1817. p. 224. H. 
Favorable. 

Svea. Upsala, 1818. 1 : 197-226. Om Skandinavernes Fordna 
Upptacktsresor till Nordamerica, ved J : H : Schroder. BP. 

Treats of the discovery of Vinland, which he believes to have been a part 
of North America. 

Barrow, Sir J: Chronological history of voyages to the Arctic 
Regions. London, 1818. pp. 1-13. H. 

Believes that Vinland was either Labrador or Newfoundland. 



PEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 129 

Henderson, Ebenezer. Iceland. Edin., 1818. [An ed af 
Boston, 1831. pp. 15-17. H.] '" 

The author says with perfect confidence, " To the Icelanders belongs the 
honor of being the first discoverers of America and Greenland/' ^ 

o, T^^f^r'^'- X- T-' '"i? Moulton, Joseph White. History of the 
btate of :New lork. N. Y., 1824. 1:110-125. H. 

The discoveries of the Northmen are here discussed at o-reat leno-th Thp 

?h\^???e^f^o?l;-4^l^\jt^;^vif.S 

Irving Washington. History of the life and voyages of Chris- 
topher Columbus. London, 1828. 4: 213-217. H. 

Here Irving refers to Malte-Brun and Forster, and confesses hi« nu-n 
Ignorance of the sub ect. He deems the claimrimp?obJble however T 

Murray, Hugh. Historical account of discoveries and travels 
ni A orth America. London, 1829. 1:13-28. H. 

Murray, after giving the account at great length, remarks. "I agree with 
fi :"f..^'^^^^'^™ writers, that the voyages to Vinland were real vovages- but 
Seati\"possibTe do'^ibt!-- ''^' '' ^ ^^^«^tion respecting which I entertain the 

Cooley, W: Desborough. The history of maritime and inland 
disj3overy. (Lardner's Cabinet cyclopaedia.) London, 1880. 1: 
21 0—221. jT. 

. Cooley says, " It is impossible to shake the authenticity of these plain and 
circumstantial accounts, and it is likewise difficult, if not impossible to 
acknowledge their genuine character without admitting at the same t me 
that \ inland was m Newfoundland, or else on the continent of North Amer- 
ica. This book was reprinted in the " Edinburgh cabinet library.'' 

^ Wheaton, H: History of the Northmen. Phila., 1831. ch. 

Wheaton expresses no doubt of the fact that the Northmen discovered 
America. He thinks, too, that Vinland was in the vicinity of Boston 

Same. [A French translation bv Paul Guillot. Histoire des 
peuples du Nord. Paris, 1844. pp.' 22-41, 483-304. BP.] 
i^^},l ^^^% edition, supervised by the author, the account is given at greater 

it?£^;tf "J %r''^' ""L^^^ ^•'-^t.T Kock,the inscription on.which Wheaton 
attributes to the Northmen, is added. 

T^-?^^?^' ^^'-.o^k Undersogelses-reise til ostkvsten af Gronland. 
Kjobenha^Ti, 1832. BM. [An English translation under the title 
ot Narrative of an expedition to the east coast of Greenland," 
London, 1837. p. 3. CB.} 
Favorable. 



130 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVEKIES OF AMERICA. 

Leslie, J:, Jameson, Robert, and Murray, Hugh. Narrative 
of discovery and adventures in the Polar Seas and Regions. N. 
Y., 1833. 'p. 87. H. 

Mentions casually that '• diiring the 11th century chance or enterprise led 
Greenland navigators southward to another coast, which they called Vin- 
land, and which has been very generally believed to be America." They say 
further, that after a careful examination of the authorities on which this 
opinion rests, they have been led to suppose that the new country was 
merely a more southern point of Greenland. 

Priest, Josiah. American antiquities, and discoveries in the 
West. Albany, 1833. pp. 224-240. H. 

Favorable. 

Dupaix, Gruillaume. Antiquites mexicaines. Paris, 1834. vol. 
1, no. 9. pp. 48-49. BA. 

A favorable article, by Francois Charles Farcy. 

Dupaix, Guillaume, Antiquites mexicaines. Recherches sur 
les antiquites de I'Amerique du Nord et de I'Amerique du Sud, par 
D: Bailie Warden. Paris, 1834. 1: pp. 146-154. BA. 

Favorable. 

Bancroft, Hofi. G: History of the United States. Boston, 
1834. 1 : 5-6. H. 

Bancroft mentions the claims of the Northmen, and gives a list of the 
chief works which support these claims, but considers the whole story as 
vague, as well as fictitious or exaggerated. 

Rafinesque, Constantine Smaltz. The American nations. 
Phila., 1836. 2:280-281. H. 

Favorable. 

Humboldt, F : H : Alexander von. Examen critique de I'his- 
toire de la geographic du nouveau continent. Paris, 1837. 1 : 84- 
104. H. 

Humboldt gives a synopsis of the evidence contained in the Icelandic 
Sagas, and asserts with great confidence that the Northmen discovered 
America; he also believes that the parts which they visited were between 
New York and Newfoundland. 

Kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift Selskab. Antiquitates Ameri- 
canae, sive Scriptores Septentrionales rerum Ante-Columbianarum 
in America. Havniae, 1837. H. 

Contents. Praefatio; Conspectus codicum membraneorum in quibus 
terrarum Americanarum mentio fit; Abstract of the historical evidence; 
Narrationes de Eiriko Rufo et Graenlandis; Historia Thorfinni Karlsefnii et 
Snorrii Thorbrandi filii; Breviores relationes; Annotationes geographicae ; 
Addenda et emendanda; Index chronologicus ; Index personarum; Index 
geographicus ; Index rerum; Genealogiae; Plates. 



PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA, 131 



The object wa?; to prove that the Northmen discovered America, and the 
account of' their discoveries is given in full, as found in the manuscripts of 
the North. The supposed remains of the Northmen in this country are also 
discussed at length. Among the plates are fac-similes of parts of the ancient 
manuscripts, views of the Dighton Rock, and maps of Iceland and Yinland. 

Democratic review. Wash.. 1838. 2: 85-96, 143-158. H. 
The discovery of America by the Northmen, by Alexander Everett. 

The historical evidence is considered, and the different opinions on the 
subject are discussed. The author is in doubt about the Dighton Rock, and 
believes that the Northmen settled in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. 

Foreign quarterly review. London, 1838. 21 : 89-118. //. 
The discovery of America by the Northmen, before Cohimbus. 

This article is much the same as that in the " Democratic review," but is 
at greater length, aud the writer speaks of the discoveries of the Northmen 
as a certainty. 

North American review. Boston, 1838. 46: 161-203. H. 

The discovery of American by the Northmen, by E: Everett. 

The writer here discusses at considerable length the probability of the 
discovery, as well as the authenticity of the accounts, and remarks, " While 
we are decidedly of opinion that the ancient Icelandic accounts, to which we 
have called the attention of our readers, have a foundation in historical truth, 
and that the coast of North America, and very possibly this portion of it, was 
visited by the Northmen, we deem it exceedingly doubtful whether they made 
any permanent settlement on the continent.'" 

New York review. N. Y., 1838. 2:352-357. BP. 

The '-Antiquitates Americanse"' is reviewed, aud the whole question is 
discussed, the chief writers on the subject being referred to The writer 
fully believes that the Northmen discovered America, but is inclined to think 
that the Old Mill and the inscription of the Dighton Rock are not their work. 

Royal Geographical Society. Journal. London, 1838. 8: 
114-129. H. 

An abstract of the historical evidence contained in the "'Antiquitates 
Americanae," in which the writer fully believes. 

Biondelli, B. Scoperta dell'America fatta nel secolo x. da 
alciini Scandinavi. Milan, 1839. H. 

A small pamphlet, in which is given a somewhat condensed account of 
the discovery of Vinland, taken from the '"Antiquitates Americanae." 

Smith, Joshua Toulmin. The Northmen in New England, or 
America in the tenth century. Boston, 1839. H. 

This book contains an account of the Northmen, put in the form of con- 
versation. The questions of the Old Mill and the Dighton Rock are also dis- 
cussed, both of which the author attributes to the Northmen. A map of 
Vinland is added. 

American Biblical repository. N. Y. and Boston, July, 1839, 
3dser., 1:430-449. U, 



132 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 



By H: R. Schoolcraft. Gives the Prospectus issued by the Royal Society 
of Northern Antiquarians; then the question of the discovery is discussed 
(which the writer believes), and a view of the Dighton Rock is added (though 
he regards the inscription as Algic) ; and finally a letter is given from Albert 
Gallatin, on the use of the letters v and I in the Eskimau language. 

Russell, Rev. Michael. Iceland. Greenland, and the Faroe 
Isles. Edin., 1840. (Edinburgh cabinet library.) pp. 254-266. 
A. (Also in Harper's family library, N. Y., 1841.) 

Gives the account of the discovery of Yinland, and adds, " The history of 
Vinland given us by the Icelandic historians is interesting, not merely as 
connected with the countries of which we are now treating, but as proving 
that America was known to Europeans five hundred years before the Genoese 
mariner set foot upon its shores.'" 

Beamish, North Ludlow. Discovery of America by the North- 
men. London, 1841. R. 

Contents. Sketch of the rise, eminence and extinction of Icelandic his- 
torical literature; Saga of Erik the Red; Saga of Thorfinn Karlsefne; Geo- 
graphical notices; Monuments and inscriptions: Minor narratives; Complete 
dial of the ancient Northmen; Genealogical tables; Map of Vinland; En- 
graving of the inscription on the Dighton Rock ; General chart of the discov- 
eries of the Northmen in the Arctic Regions of America: Index. 

This is little more than an English translation of those parts of the "An- 
tiquitates Americanse" which the author considered were likely to prove 
most interesting to British readers. 

Malte-Brun Conrad. Geographie universelle. Paris, 1841. 
1 : 204-206. H. 

Gives at some length the account of the discovery of Vinland, and regards 
it as beyond doubt that Vinland was a part of North America. 

Wilhelmi, K: Island, Huitramannaland. Gronland, und Vin- 
land. Heidelberg, 1842. CB. 

Based upon the "Antiquitates Americana?." Written in support of the 
Northmen's claim. Contains a chart of their discoveries, identifying Hellu- 
land with Newfoundland, Markland with portions of Nova Scotia, Vinland 
with NeAv England and New York, and Huitramannaland with the coast of 
Georgia and the Carolinas. 

Hermes, K: H: Die Entdeckung von America durch die 
Islander im zehnten und eilften Jahrhundert. Braunschweig, 

1844. BF. 

Contains in detail the account of the Northmen, the "Antiquitates Amer- 
icanae" being frequently referred to. An engraving of the Dighton Rock is 
also given, the inscription on which the author believes to be the work of the 
Northmen. 

Humboldt, F: H: Alexander von. Kosmos. Stuttg. u. Tiib., 

1845. [An English translation, under the title of "Cosmos," 
London, 1849. 1: 603-608. i7.] 

Gives the account of the discovery of Vinland, and refers to hig "Examen 
critique" for further particulars. 



PEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 133 

Colombo, Cristoforo. Select letters; ed. by R: H: Major. 
(Hakluyt Society.) London, 1847. pp. xii-xxi. H. 

The editor, R : H : Major, gives an account of the discovery of Vinland, 
and adds, "No room is left for disputing the main fact of the discovery."' 
He also makes the same identification of places as the "Autiquitates Ameri- 
canaj." 

Klemm, Gustav. Allgemeine cultur-geschichte der mensch- 
heit. Leipzig, 1847. 5: 164-171. BP. 

Favorable. 

Davis, Asahel. Antiquities of America. 20th ed. Boston, 
1848. H. 

Davis, an itinerant lecturer, here gives a verv brief account of the discov- 
ery of Vinland, and then discusses at length the probability of the truth of the 
Btory. He believes that the Northmen discovered America. 

Robinson, Conway. An account of discoveries in the We.st 
until 1519, and of voyages to and along the Atlantic Coast of 
North America from 1520 to 1573. Richmond, 1848. pp. 1-10. H. 

Gives a long extract of the discovery of America, taken from Wheaton's 
" Northmen," but expresses no opinion on the subject. 

Massachusetts quarterly review. Discovery of America by 
the Norsemen. Boston, 1849. 2:189-214. H. 

By J. 'Elliot Cabot. The historical evidence is given, and the writer 
believes that the Northmen discovered America; but is inclined to place the 
parts which they visited about Labrador and Newfoundland. 

Chambers, Robert and W. Papers for the people. Edin., 

1850. V. 6, no. 42. H. 

A popular account of the discovery of America by the Northmen is given, 
and the inscription on the Dighton Rock, the Old Mill, and the skeleton in 
armor, are discussed. The writer believes it. 

Warburton, G: The conquest of Canada. N. Y., 1850. 1: 
32-35. H. 

Gives very briefly the account of the Northmen, without doubting it. 

Brooks, Rev. C : Timothy. The controversy touching the old 
Stone Mill in the town of Newport, Rhode* Island. Newport, 

1851. H. 

" We propose to publish together all the letters, newspaper articles, and 
recorded documents we can find, which have been elicited by the old Stone 
Mill controversy, with such oral traditions and reminiscence's as may seem 
worth preserving in print." The writer is inclined to believe that Benedict 
Arnold built it for a wind-mill. 

Rivero, Mariano E:, and Tschudi, J: Jacob von. Peruvian 
antiquities. [An English translation.. N. Y., 1853. pp. 3-7, 
BP.] 



134 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 



The account of the Northmen is here given, in which the authors fully 
believe. 

New England historical and genealogical register. Boston, 
1853. 7: ia-14. H. 

A paper by C: C. Rafn contains a synopsis of the discoveries of the 
Northmen. 

Haven, S : F. Archaeology of the United States. {In Smith- 
sonian Institution. Contributions to knowledge. Wash., 1856. 
V. 8, art. 1, pp. 10, 13, 26, 35, 62, 106-108. H.) 

"The narratives of the voyages of the Northmen, and their discovery of 
this country, are regarded as well attested, leaving the question open as to 
the distance in a southerly direction to which their observations extended; 
and many striking coincidences seem to justify the conclusion that the Vinland 
of these narratives was really in Narragansett Bay.'' However, he regards 
the Dighton Rock and the tower at Newport as having nothing to do with the 
Northmen. 

Blackwood, F: Temple Hamilton Temple. \^Lord Bufferm.] 
Letters from high latitudes. London, 1857. pp. 57-59. H. 
The claim of the Northmen is mentioned: the author believes it. 

Brasseur de Bourbourg, C: Etienne, Vahhe. Histoire des 
nations civilisees du Mexique et de TAmerique-Centrale. Paris, 
1857. 1 : 18-22. H. 

Favorable. 

ElUott, C: W. The New England history. N. Y., 1857. 1: 
18-37. BP. 

The account of the Northmen, in which the author fully believes, is given 
at considerable length. He adds a list of some of the authorities on the sub- 
ject. 

Notes and queries. London, 1858. 2d ser., v, 5. H. 

Alfred T. Lee, p. 314, remarks that Lord Dufferin says that America was 
discovered by Icelanders in the 11th century. He asks for corroborative 
testimony. 

W. D. H. replies, pp. 386-387, that the evidence is given in "Antiquitates 
AmericauEe," "North American review," v. 46, and the Earl of Ellesmere's 
" Guide to Northern archeology." 

W. H. Z. and W: Matthews, p. 458, give a number of the authorities upon 
which the account rests. 

Nouvelle biographie gen^rale. Paris, 1858. 16: 250-251. 
Eric. H. 

The account of the discovery of Vinland is here given in brief, but no 
opinion is expressed as to the truth of it; a partial bibliography of the subject 
is added. 

Palfrey, J: Gorham. History of New England. Boston, 1858. 
1: 51-58. //. 



PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 135 



Gives briefly tlie account of tlie discovery of Vinland, together witli pic- 
tures of tlie tower at Newport, and of a similar one at Ciiesterton in Warwick- 
shire. He considers the claims "nowise unlikely/'' and identities the places 
as in the "Antiquitates Americana^." 

Peschel, Oscar Ferdinand. Gesehichte des zeitalters der ent- 
deckungen. Stuttg. u. Augsb., 1858. pp. 103-106. H. 

Favorable. 

Beauvois, Eugene. Decouvertes des Scandinaves en Amerique. 
Paris, 1859. H. 

A translation of the most important parts of the " Antiquitates Ameri- 
cante." 

Asher, G: M. Henry Hudson the navigator. (Hakluyt Society.) 
London, 1860. pp. Ixvi-lxvii, ccxvi-ccxvii. H. 
Favorable. 

Domenech, Em., Vabhe. Seven vears' residence in the Great 
Deserts of Xorth America. London,' 1860. 1 : 52-64. BP. 

Gives the account of the Northmen, which the author believes. 

Brasseur de Bourbourg, C : Etienne, Vabhe. Popol Vuh. Paris, 
1861. pp. lii-liv. H. 

Mentions the claim of the Northmen, and says that, although they went 
as far south as North Carolina, their principal station was at the mouth of the 
St. Lawrence. 

Tylor, E : Burnett. Anahuac. London, 1861. pp. 378-279. //. 
Favorable. 

Charnay, Desire, and Violet-le-Duc. Cites et mines ameri- 
caines. Paris, 1863. pp. 10-11, 18, 23. BP. 

Favorable. 

Wilson, Daniel. Prehistoric man. London and Camb., 1863. 
[3d ed., London, 1876. 3:83-111. //.] 
Favorable. 

Riant, Paul. Expeditions et pelerinages des Scandinaves en 
Terre Sainte an temps des Croisades. Paris, 1865. pp. 19, 33-4, ' 
50, 335, 840, 363, 364-5, and 430. BN. 

Several times mention is here made of the coast of Labrador as being a 
colony of Norway during the time of the Crusades. 

Massachusetts Historical Society. Proceedings, 1865. Bos- 
ton. 1866. pp. 175-301. H. 

This is a communication by Dr. Webb on Prof. Rafn. The work done by 
the Royal Society of Northern Antiquarians is stated, the whole question of 



136 PEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVEEIES OF AMERICA. 



the Northmen is discussed, and the views held by the chief writers set forth. 
Also contains many letters of interest from Prof. Rafn to Dr. Webb on the 

subject. 

Historical magazine. N.Y., December, 1865. 9:364-365. H. 

An article by D. G. B. to prove that Huitramannaland was on the coast of 
Virginia or the Carolina s. 

De Oosta, Rev. B : Franklin. Pre-Columoian discovery of Amer- 
ica by the Northmen. Albany, 1868, H. 

Contents.— Fref ace ; General introduction; Gunnbiorn and his rocks: Eric 
the Red's voyage to the coast of America; Leif Ericson"s voyage to Vinland; 
Thorstein Ericson's attempt to seek Vinland; Thorfinn Karlsefne's settlement 
in Vinland; Freydis's voyage tnd settlement in Vinland; Are Marson's 
sojourn in Huitramannaland: Voyage of Biorn Asbrandson; Gudleif Gud- 
langson's voyage; Allusions to voyages found in ancient manuscripts; Geo- 
graphical fragments. 

The aim was to place within the reach of the English-reading historical 
student every portion of the Icelandic Sagas essentially relating to the Pre- 
Columbian discovery of America by the Northmen. 

North American review. Boston, 1869. 109 : 265-272. H. 
De Costa's discovery of America, by J. Lewis Diman, 

A short criticism of De Costa's work. 

De Oosta, Rev. B : Franklin, Notes on a review of ' ' The Pre- 
Columbian discovery of America by the Northmen," in the "North 
American review" " for July. Charlestown, 1869. H. 

A reply to the criticism in the "North American review.'' 

Historical magazine. Morrisania, Januarv, 1869. 2d ser. 
5:30-31. H. 

An article by Joseph Williamson. States that the remains of some very 
early settlements have been found in different parts of Maine, and the writer, 
referring to the account of the discovery of America by the Northmen, sug- 
gests that they may have been left by them.. 

Historical magazine. Morrisania, March, 1869, n,s, v, 5, no, 3, 
pp. 170-179. H. The Aiite-Columbian discovery of the American 
continent by the Northmen, ^y F. Boggild. 

The account is given, and the inscription on the Dighton Rock is discussed, 
which the writer does not consider the work of the Northmen. To this article 
De Costa adds a note, showing some mistakes into which the writer has fallen. 

Gaffarel, Paul, Etudes sur les rapports de I'Amerique et de 
I'Ancien Continent avant Christoph Colomb. Paris, 1869. pp. 225- 
260. BP. 

Speaks of the maritime activity of the Northmen; gives at considerable 
length the account of discoveries of the Northmen in the Atlantic before 100 •; 
discusses the probability that the Toltecs discovered America before this 
time, but does not believe it; gives the voyages of the Northmen in the 11th 
century ; shows that "Vinland was known in Europe ; treats of the commerce of 



PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 137 

Vinland; and finally of the decadence of the Scandinavian colonies of America. 
He is very full in his foot-notes. He considers Helluland, Newfoundland; 
Vinland, the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts ; Kialarness, Cape Cod ; 
and Krossaness, Cape Sable. 

Willis, W : Documentarv history of the State of Maine. (Maine 
Hist. Soc. 2d ser., v. 1.) Portland, 1869. vol. 1, History of the 
discovery of the east coast of Nortli America, by J. G. Kohl. pp. 
GO-91. H. 

Gives the accounts of the discovery of Vinland, with the authorities upon 
which they rest, and comes to the same conclusion as the editors of the 
"Antiquitates Americanae." 

American Geographical and Statistical Societv. Journal. 
N.Y.. 1870. 2, pt. 2 : 40-54. BP. 

By the Rev. B: Franklin De Costa. The question of the Northmen i3 
discussed, and a map of Cape Cod, as it appeared at the beginning of the 17th 
century, is added. 

De Costa, Rex. B : Franklin. The Northmen in Maine. Albany, 
1870. pp. 5-29. H. 

A criticism on the work of Dr. Kohl. 

Harper's new monthly magazine. X.Y., 1871. 42:427. An 
examination of the claims of Columbus, by Rev. M. Maury. 

Favorable. 

De Costa, i^CT. B: Franklin. Columbus and the geographers 
of the Xorth. Hartford, 1872. pp. 1-17. H. 

Gives briefly the accounts of the Northmen, with remarks and comments, 
considering the subject in relation to Columbus. 

Baldwin, J : Denison. Ancient America. X. Y., 1872. pp. 279- 
285. H. 

Gives an account of the discovery of Vinland, which he considers to be a 
part of New England. 

Oornhill magazine. London. Oct.. 1872. 26:456-459. H. 
Legends of Old America. 

The account of the Northmen is here briefly given, which the writer is 
inclined to disbelieve. This article was reprinted in "LittelFs living age.'' 
Boston. 1878. no. 1541, pp. 763-765. 

National quarterly review. X.Y., Dec, 1873. 28: 75-97. H. 

The account of the Northmen is here given, which the writer considers 
unquestionably true ; he does not, however, attribute to them the Old Mill and 
the inscription on the Dighton Rock. 

Gravier, Gabriel. Decouverte de TAmerique par les Xormands 
au 10-^ siecle. Pai'is, 1874. BP. 



138 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 



Contents. — Route de rAmerique; Les enfants d'Erik le Rouge; Thorfinn 
Karlsefne et Gudrida; Excursious meridionales; Excursions boreales; Predi- 
cations cre'tiennes en Ame'rique; Nouvelle decouverte de TAmerique si la fin 
du 14^ siecle; Decadence et ruine des colonies normands de TAmerique; 
Preuves arche'ologiques du sejour des Normands- en Amerique. Also has a 
map of the discoveries of the Northmen in America, a map of the Zeni, and 
an engraving of the inscription on the Dighton Rock. 

Puts full credit in the account of the discovery, and assigns to the North- 
men the tower at Newport and the inscriptions on the Dighton Rock. The 
identification of places is the same as that given in the "Antiquitates Ameri- 
canae.'' His foot-notes and references are very full. 

North American review. Boston, 1874. 119:166-182. H. 
Gravier's Decouverte de 1" Amerique, by H: Cabot Lodge, 

A criticism on Gravier's work ; and gives the account of the discovery of 
Vinland. It also discusses the question of the Dighton Rock and the tower at 
Newport, and adds, "Gravier's book is almost valueless, beyond calling atten- 
tion to an interesting field of investigation."" 

Goodrich, Aaron. A history of the charactej- and achievements 
of the so-called Christopher Columbus. N.Y., 1874. pp. 69-87. BP. 

Gives the account of the Northmen. The author believes it, and identifies 
the places a^ in the "Antiquitates AmericanK."" 

Royal Historical Society. Transactions. London, 1874. n.s., 
3:75-97. H. 

Gives the account of the Northmen, and the authorities upon which it 
rests are stated. 

Kingsley, Rev. C: Lectures delivered in America in 1874. 
Phila., 1875. pp. 65-97. H. 

This is a popular account of the discover}', which the writer regards as 
history, 

Anderson, R, B, America not discovered bv Columbus, Chi- 
cago, 1874. H. 

Contents.— The Norsemen, and other peoples, interested in the discovery 
of America; Norse literature has been neglected by the learned men of the 
great nations; Antiquity of America; Phenician, Greek, Irish, and Welsh 
claims; Who were the Norsemen? Greenland; The ships of the Norsemen; 
The Sagas and documents are genuine; Bjarne Herjulfson,986; Leif Erikson, 
1000; Thorfinn Karlsefne and Gudrid, lOOT; The discovery of America by 
Columbus; Other expeditions by the Norsemen; Conclusion; The Scandina- 
vian languages. 

A small book containing much information not to be conveniently found 
elsewhere. It gives fully the account of the discovery of Vinland. The author 
puts great confidence iii the account, as well as in the tower at Newport, the 
Dighton Rock, and the skeleton in armor. He also believes that Columbu.s 
knew of the discovery of America by the Northmen, and concludes by giving 
quotations from several eminent scholars in regard to the Scandinavian lan- 
guages. 

Abbott, J: S. C. The history of Maine. Boston, 1875. pp. 
13-21. BF. 



PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 139 



Gives the account of the Northmen, which the author takes from the 
"Antiquitates Americanae." He agrees with it in every particuhir, and says 
of the Old Mill, ''It is not unreasonable to suppose that the venerable tower 
remains a memorial of the Northmen's visit." 

Drake, S: Adams. Nooks and corners of the New England 
coast. N.Y., 1875. p. 369. H. 

The connection of the Northmen with the Old Mill at Newport is taken up- 
"The discovery of any portion of the coast of New England by Northmen 
belongs to the realms of conjectm-e."' 

Galaxy. N.Y., 1875. 20:514-518. H. Claims to the dis- 
covery of America, by J: T. Short. 

Gives briefly the account of the Northmen, which he considers probable; 
but he does not believe in the Dighton Rock and the Old Mill. 

Potter's American monthly. Phila., 1875. v. 5; no. 48. pp. 
906-907. H. The visits of Europeans to America in the 10th and 
11th centuries, by M. R. Pilon. 

Gives the account of the Northmen, which he believes. 

Carlyle, T: The early kings of Norway. N.Y., 1875. pp. 50- 
51. H. ^ 

Mentions that it is believed that Erik the Red discovered America in 985. ' 
The author then states the parts which he is thought to have visited. 

Higginson, T : Wentworth. Young folks' history of the United 
States. Boston, 1875. pp. 25-30. H. 

After giving the story of the Northmen, expresses the opinion that Vin- 
land was Rhode Island or Nova Scotia. 

Congres International des Americanistes. Compte-rendu de 
la I'' session. Nancy et Paris, 1875. 1 : 37-93. BP. 

In this article, by Eugene Beauvois, the question of the Northmen is dis- 
cussed at great length, and profuse references are given. A map of the dis- 
coveries of the Northmen is added. 

Bryant, \V: Cullen, ami. Gay, Sidney Howard. Popular history 
of the United States. N.Y., 1876. vol. 1, ch. 3. H. 

Gives a very complete account of the discovery of Vinland, and discusses 
the probability 'of the story. His notes and references are also very copious. 
This chapter is accompanied by engravings of the Dighton Rock, and of a 
similar one near Steubenville. Ohio, as well as of the tower at Newport, and 
of a similar one at Chesterton, in Warwickshire; but the author puts no con- 
fidence either in the tower or the Dighton Rock. He says, " The main facts 
related in the Icelandic Chronicles are unquestionably true'': and again, 
" There seems no good reason for doubting that;the Northmen did cross the 
Atlantic from coast to coast." 

Bancroft, Hubert Howe. The native races of the Pacific States 
of North America. N.Y., 1876. 5: 102-115. H. 

Gives at considerable length the account of the discovery of America by 



140 PEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 



the Northmen, which he is inclined to believe. He adds an exceedingly fnll 
bibliography of the subject. 

Kneeland, S: An American in Iceland. Boston, 1876. pp. 
217-231. H. 

Gives, in brief, the account of the discovery of Vinland, and discusses the 
probability of it. The author thinks it is true, and that Vinland was on the 
coast of New England. 

Higginson, T: Wentworth. A book of American explorers. 
Boston, 1877. pp. 1-15. H. 

Gives a popular account of the Northmen discovery, taken from the 
"Massachusetts quarterly review," 1849. 

Slafter, Edmund Farwell. Voyages of the Northmen to Am- 
erica. Boston, 1877. (Prince Society.) H. 

Contents.— Map of Vinland: Preface: Introduction: General Map of 
Northern Europe and America; The Saga of Erik the Red; Extracts from the 
Heimskringla of Snorro Sturleson; The Saga of Thorfinn Karlsefne; Geo- 
graphical notices; Minor narratives; Prof. Rafn's Synopsis of historical evi- 
dence; Opinion of Prof. Rafn as to identity of places; Dial of the ancient 
northmen, by Prof. Magnusen; Names given to the parts of the day by the 
Northmen ; Bibliographical, etc. 

The object was to collect in a suitable form for "American readers the 
evidence contained in the "Antiquitates Americans, "^and Beamish's work. 

Farnum, Alexander. Visits of the Northmen to Rhode Island. 
Providence, 1877. (Rhode Island hist, tracts, no. 2.) H. 

Gives briefly the 'account of the fNorthmen. in which the writer fully 
believes. He, however, considers the Old Mill and the Dighton Rock as hav- 
ing nothing to do with the Northmen. 

Foster, J: Wells. Pre-historic races of the United States. 
Chicago, 1878. pp. 399-400. H. 
Unfavorable. 

Sinding, Paul Kristian. The Scandinavian races. (A new 
edition, with a few slight changes, and a little additional matter, 
of the author's ''History of Scandinavia.") N. Y., 1878. pp. 76- 
84. H. 

Gives fully the account of the discovery of Vinland, and mentions the 
parts of America which the Northmen are thought to have visited. "The 
claim that the Northmen were the very first discoverers of America seems to 
be placed on good foundation." 

Short, J: T. The North Americans of antiquitv, N. Y., 1879. 
pp. 152-154. H. 

A criticism in favor of the claim. 

Metcalfe, F. The Englishman and the Scandinavian. Lpn- 
don. 1880. pp. 25, 193, 297, note. H. 
Favorable. 



PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 141 



III. DISCOVERY BY THE ARABS. 

Edrisi. Nos het al-moschtae fi ikktirje al-afac. Written in 
1153. [A French translation, by P. A. Jaubert, under the title of 
'^Geographie d'Edrisi," Paris, 1836-40, by P. A. Jaubert. 1:200. 
201; 2:26-29. H.] 

On pp. 200-201 he hints of the voyage of the Maghrourins, and on pp. 26-27 
he gives, without stating his authority, the story of eight relatives who sailed 
to the west in order to find out the limits of the ocean. 

Institut de France. Academie Royale des Inscriptions et 
Belles-LeUres. BP. Memoires de litterature. Paris, 1761. 28: 
524-526. Recherehes sur les navigations des Chinois du cote de 
I'Amerique, par M. de Giiignes. 

Gives the story of the Arabs, and states it as a fact that they went to the 
Canaries, but does not give his authorities. 

Institut de France. Academie Royale des Inscriptions et 
Belles-Lett res. Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Biblio- 
theque du Roi. Paris, 1789. 2:24,27. H. Perles des merveilles, 
par M. de Guignes. 

Treats of a ms. in the library of the king by Ebn-al-ouardi, on physical 
geography, called Mocaddemat-al-ouardiat. De Guignes gives the account of 
the Arabs, which he says he finds in the manuscript, and says that he thinks 
they came to America. 

Mufioz, J: Baptista. Historia del Nuevo Mundo. Madrid. 
1793. [An English translation, London, 1797. p. 119, note, /f.] 

Gives the story of the Arabs, but says nothing about America. Refers to 
"Notices et extraits." 

Murray, Hugh. Historical account of discoveries and travels 
in North America. London, 1829. 1 : 11-12. H. 

Speaks of the account of the Arabs, but says it has been shown clearly 
that the lands to which they went were the Azores. 

Cooley, W: Desborough. History of maritime and inland 
discovery. Lardner's cabinet cyclopaedia. London, 1830. 1 : 172- 
173. H. 

Gives the story of the Arabs, and adds that they seem not to have sailed 
beyond the Canary islands. This book was reprinted in the "Edinburgh cab- 
inet library." 

Humboldt, F : H : Alexander von. Examen critique de I'his- 
toire de la geographic du nouveau continent. Paris, 1837. 2 : 137- 
142. H. 

Puts little confidence in the account of the Arabs. He thinks that if they 
really made the voyage they came upon the Canary isles. 



142 pre-colu:mbtan discoveries of America. 



Malte-Brun, Conrad. Geographic universelle. Paris, 1841. 
1 : 186-187. H. 

Gives the account of the Arabs, and thinks it probable that they visited 
the Canaries. 

Colombo, Cristoforo. Select letters; ed. by R: H: Major. 
(Hakluyt Society.) London, 1847. pp. xxii-xxiii. H. 

Gives the account of the Arabs, but considers the assertion that they 
reached the coast of America as without foundation. 

Lelewel, Joacliira. Geographic du nioyen age. Briix., 1852. 
2:78-79. BP. 

Gives the account of the Arabs very briefly, but says that they landed on 
some islands. Does not hint at America. 

Haven. S : F. Archa?ologT of the United States. {Li Smith- 
sonian Institution. Contributions to knowledge. Wash., 1856. 
vol 8, art. 1, p. 9. //.) 

Gives the account of the Arabs, with the names of its principal support- 
ers. 

Peschel, Oscar Ferdinand. Geschichte des zeitalters der ent- 
deckungen. Stuttg. u. Augsb., 1858. pp. 39-41. //. 

Story mentioned, but nothing said of America, and the Story itself 
doubted. 

Major, R,: H: Life of Prijice Henrv of Portugal. London, 
1868. pp. 147-149. //. 

Gives the account of the Arabs, and adds the observations of D'Avezac 
on the subject, with which he is inclined to agree, i.e., that they went to 
Madeira. 

Gaifarel, Paul. Etudes sur les rapports de I'Ame'rique et do 
I'Ancien Continent avant Christophe Colomb. Paris, 1869. pp. 
208-211. BP. 

Gives the account of the Arabs, of which he says, "The Arabs advanced 
very far into the Atlantic, but of their journey, or of their stay in America, 
we have no proof." 

Bryant, W: Cullen. and Gay, Sidney Howard. Popular his- 
tory of the United States. N. Y., 1876. 1:64-66. H. 

Gay is the real author of tliis work; he gives the account of the Arabs, 
and refers to Humboldt and Major. He thinks that they could not possibly 
have gone west of the Azores. 

IV. DISCOVERY BY THE WELSH. 

Caradoc de Lann-Oarvan. Britannorum successiones. Writ- 
ten about 1150. [An English translation, under the title of "The 



PRE-COLUMBIAX DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 14:3 

history of Wales," by Dr. Powell, augmented bv W. Wynne. 
London, 1774. 1:195-197. BP. 

Here it is said that Madawc, son of Owen Gwynedh, left Wales in 1170, 
and sailed westward; "and, leaving Ireland to the north, he came at length 
to an unknown country, where most things appeared to him new and uncus- 
tomary, and the manner of the natives far different from what he had seen in 
Europe." It is further stated here that H. Lloyd says he came to some part 
of Nova Hispania or Florida, and that Dr. Powell thinks it was Mexico. 

Hakluyt, R: Principal navigations, voiages, and discoveries 
of the English nation. London, 1589. [An edition, London, 1810. 
8:21-22. IL] 

Gives the story of Madoc, which he says he takes from PowelFs History 
of Wales. Adds some verses on the subject, written by Meredith, son of 
Rhesus, about 1477. His opinion is that Madoc went to the West Indies. 

Hawkins, Sir R: The observations of Sir Richard Hawkins, 
Knight, in his voiage into the South Sea, 1508. London, 1622, 
p. 72. JI. 

Favorable. Republished by the Hakluyt Society, London, 1847. 

Purchas, S: Purchas his pilgrimage. London, 1617. FSd ed., 
book 8, p. 908. //.] 

Unfavorable. 

Abbott, G: A briefe description of the whole world. London, 
1620. pp. 125-126. II. 

Abbot speaks of a vague account of a Welshman who went to America, 
which he says "doth carry some show^ with it."' 

Smith, J: The generall historie of Virginia, Xew-England, 
and the Summer Isles. London, 1626. p. 1. //. 

The story of Madoc is mentioned, and it is added, " Where this place was 
no history can show." 

Herbert, Sir T: A relation of some yeares' travels into 
Africa and Asia the Great. London, 1634. pp. 394^397. R. 
Favorable. He believes Madoc probably landed at Newfoundland. 

Fox, Capf. Luke. North-west Fox. London, 1635. p. 13. 
CB. 

The story of Madoc is given, as found in Hakluyt, the opinion being 
expressed that he came to some part of the West Indies. 

Howell, James. EpistoLne Ho-Elianae, familiar letters. Lon- 
don, 1645-55. [5th ed. London, 1678. pp. 854-355. //.] 

Says of the Madoc claim, " This, if well proved, might well entitle our 
crown to America, if first discovery may claim a right to any country." 



144 PEE-COLUMEIAN DISCOVERIP:S OF AMERICA. 

Laet, J: cle. Notae ad dissertatioiiem Hugonis Grotii de ori- 
gene gentium Americanariim. Paris, 1648. pp. 137-151. H. 

The story of Madoc is given, with reference to Dr. Powell and Haklnyt. 
Comparisons of words in Welsh and Huron are given. Favorable. 

Hornius, G: De originibus Americanis. Hagae Comitis, 1652. 
pp. 13, 134-137. //. 

Claim of Madoc discussed, and considered probable, though not certain. 

Montanus, Arnoldus. De iiieiiwe en onbekende weereld. 
Amst., 1671. pp. 35-36. H. 

Favorable. 

Campanius, T:, o/ Holm. Kort beskrifning om Provincien 
Nye Swerige iiti America. Stockholm, 1702. [An English trans- 
lation, under the title of "Description of the Province of New 
Sweden," by P: S. du Ponceau. Phila., 1834. pp. 28-31. i7.] 

Claim of Madoc mentioned, but no opinion expressed. 

Torfaeus, Thormodus. Historia Vinlandite antiquae. Havniae, 
1705. Preface. //. 

Madoc's claim is spoken of as "by no means absurd.'" 

Stiiven, J: F: De vero Novi Orbis inventore dissertatio his- 
torico-critica. Francof. a. M., 1714. pp. 31-35. //. 

Story believed, but thought not to refer to America. 

Campbell, J: Lives of the admirals and other eminent British 
seamen. London, 1742. [3d ed. London, 1761. 1:251-252. //.] 

Though the author doubts whether Madoc came to America, he says, 
"There* are authentick records, in the British tongue, as to this expedition of 
Madock's, whereever he went, prior to the discovery of America by Colum- 
bus.'" 

Carte, T: History of England. London. 1747. 1:638. H. 

Carte says that Madoc came "to a land unknown, probably the coast of 
Florida, or some more northern part of America.'' 

Lyttleton, G: History of the life of King Henry the Second. 
London, 1767. 4::371-374. H. 
Unfavorable. 

Beatty, C: Journal of a two months' tour in America. Lon- 
don. 1768. pp. 24-28. //. 

Here is given some information, derived from a man named Sutton, and 
another named Levi Hicks, relative to the Welsh origin of the Indians of 
Pennsylvania. 



PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 145 

Burnet, Jfinies [Lord Monboddo]. Of the origin and }jrogress 
of language. Edin., 1773. [2d ed. Edin., 1774. pp. 589-590, 
note. H.'\ 

Favorable. 

Owen, N. British remains. London, 1777. pp. 103-120. H. 

Gives a copy of Dr. Plott's "Account of an ancient discovery of America,'' 
with letters from Morgan Jones and Charles Lloyd in confirmation thereof.'' 

\y: History of America. London, 1777. 1:436- 



438. //. 

Unfavorable. 

Filson, J: Discovery, settlement, and present state of Ken- 
tucky. Wash., 1784. pp. 95-98. //. 
Favorable. 

Jones, E: Musical and poetical relicks of the Welsh bards. 
London, 1784. 1 : 37. H. 

"The use of our poetry in preserving the memory of events, and the aid 
it has lent to history, is proved by another example, viz., of the celebrated 
Hadog ab Owen Givynedd, and his discovery of America, about the year 1170." 

Warrington, W : History of Wales. London, 1786. pp. 334 
-335. H. 

Favorable. 

Pennant, T : Introduction to the Arctic zoology. London, 
1787. [2d ed. London, 1792. pp. 263-264. iJ.] 
Unfavorable. 

Gentleman's magazine. London, 1789. 59: 1067-1068. H. 

M. F. gives a letter claiming the discovery by Madoc. He says that the 
letter was given him by a lady, but he knows not who wrote it. 

Gentleman's magazine. London, 1791. vol. 61. H. 

On i)p. 329, 396-7, 534-6, and 795-6, W: Owen gives many proofs of the 
discovery of America by the Welsh. On pp. 612-614, E : Williams gives addi- 
tional information. On p. 693, L. E. proposes that the Government send an 
expedition to ascertain the truth of the Welsh claims. On p. 800 L. carries 
on the discussion. 

Williams, J : An inquiry into the truth of the tradition con- 
cerning the discovery of America by Prince Madog ab Owen 
Gwynedd. London, 1791. 

Favorable. 

Williams, J : Farther ol)servations on the discovery of Amer- 
ica by the Europeans. London, 1792. 

Favorable. 



146 PRE-COLUMBIAX DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 



Carey's American museum. Phila., 1792. 11: 152, 209, 
etc. H. 

An extract from J: Williams' work. 

Belknap, Jeremv. American biography. Boston, 1794. 1: 
58-66. H. ' 

The author gives everything that he could find on the subject of Madoc. 
He thinks it not improbable that the story was invented by Hakluyt to 
detract from Columbus' fame. 

Burder, G: The Welsh Indians. London, 1797. H. 

Here is given the whole story, with copious references, and many proofs 
not to be found elsewhere. The criticism is entirely favorable. 

^ Owen, W: The Cambrian biography. London, 1803. p. 
233. BM. 

"I have collected a multitude of evidences, in conjunction with Edward 
Williams, the bard, to prove that Madog must have reached the American 
continent." 

Philadelphia medical and physical journal. Pliila., 1805. 
vol. 1, pt. 2. PI). 79-96. BF. 

A letter by Harry Toulmin, republished from the -'Kentucky Pallad- 
ium," telling of some Welsh-Indians in America. To this is added an unfa- 
vorable discussion by B : Smith Barton. 

Southey, Robert. Madoc. Ed in., 1805. H. 

The poem is based upon the Welsh claim, which Southey seems to believe. 

Lewis, Meriwether. The travels of Capts. Lewis and Clarke. 
London. 1809. p. 215. H. 

The claims set forth, but no opinion expressed. 

Stoddard, Amos. Sketches, historical and descriptive, of 
Louisiana. Phila., 1812. pp. 465-488. H. 

A favorable discussion of the subject. 

Pinkerton, J : A general collection of the best and most inter- 
esting vovages and travels in all parts of the world. London, 
1812. 12: 157;— 1814. 17 : xxiv. H. 

In 12: 157: "That the country [Madoc] went to was really America, is 
more, I think, than can be thoroughly proved: but that this tale was invented 
after the discovery of that counti-j'. on purpose to set up a prior title, is most 
certainly false." In 17: xxiv, the Welsh claim is spoken of as "a ridiculous 
W^elsh tale." 

Brackenridge, H. M. Views of Louisiana. Bait., 1817. pp. 
166-170. //. 

Speaks of Welsh remains in the valley of the Mississippi, but considers 
it impossible that any such exist. 



PRE-COLUMBIAX DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 147 

Biographie universelle. ]Madoc. Paris, 1820. 26 : 95-96. H. 

« Gives Madoc's claim, but expresses no opinion. 

Yates, J: V. N., ami Moulton, Joseph White. History of the 
State of New York. N. Y., 1824. pp. 45-57. H. 

Gives an extended discussion, and expresses his own doubt on the 
subject. 

Murray, Hugh. Historical account of discoveries and travels 
in North America. London, 1829. 1 : 12-13. H. 

Murray believes Madoc went to Spain. 

Priest, Josiah. American antiquities, and discoveries in the 
West. Albany, 1833. pp. 224-240. H. 

Favorable. 

Cooley, W : Desborough. History of maritime and inland dis- 
covery. (Lardner's cabinet cyclopoedia.) London, 1830. 1:215. H. 

Unfavorable. This book was reprinted in the "Edinburgh cabinet 
library.'' 

Dupaix, Guillaume. Antiquites mexicaines. Paris, 1834. BA. 

In 1: 4&-50 is a favorable article by Fran9ois C: Farcy; in 1: 154-158 is an 
unfavorable one by D : Bailie Warden. 

Humboldt, F : H : Alexander von. Examen critique de I'his- 
toire de la geographic du nouveau continent. Paris, 1837. 2: 
142-149. H. 

Unfavorable 

Rafinesque, Constantine Smaltz. The American nations. 
Phila., 1836. 2: 281. H. 

Favorable. 

North American review. Boston, July, 1838. 47:179. H. 
Claim mentioned, but no opinion expressed. 

Gentleman's magazine. London, 1840. 10 : 103-105. H. 

A favorable article by Theophilus Evans. 

Catlin, G : Letters and notes on the manners, customs, and 
condition of the North American Indians. N. Y., 1842. 1: 206; 
2 : App. A. H. 

Madoc probably landed at Florida, or else entered the Mississippi river 
at the Balize. 



148 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 

Colombo, Cristoforo. Select letters; ed. by R: H: Major. 
(Hakluyt Society.) London, 1847. pp. xxiii-xxv. H. 

Madoc's claim considered improbable, but by no means impossible. 

Robinson, Conway. Account of discoveries in the West until 
1519, and of voyages to and along the Atlantic coast of North 
America, from l'520 to 1573. Richmond, 1848. pp. 10-11. H. 

The claim mentioned, but no opinion expressed. 

Alexander, Sir James E : L' Acadie. London, 1849. 1 : 89- 
90. BA. 

Favorable. 

Cambrian Archaeological Association. Archoeologia Cam- 
brensis. London, 1849. 4:65. BM. 

The article by R. and M., giving two communications in regard to the 
Welsh claim, which appeared in the "London Times"' in 1846. 

Warburton, G: The conquest of Canada. N. Y., 1850. 1: 
35-36. H. 

Unfavorable. 

Haven, S : F : Archaeology of the United States. {In Smith- 
sonian Institution. Contributions to knowledge. Wash., 1856. 
V. 8, art. 1. pp. 10, 26, 31, 35. H.) 

The account is given, but no opinion expressed. 

Palfrey, J : Gorham. Historv of New England. ^Boston, 1858. 
1:59. H. 

The author says that the story is not without important corroboration, but 
that if Welshmen'settled in America, it was in Florida or west of the Missis- 
sippi. 

Brasseur de Bourbourg, C : Etienne, Vahhe. Popul Vuh. 
Paris, 1861. p. Ixi. H. 
Unfavorable. 

Nouvelle biographie generale. Madoc. Paris, 1863. 32: 
634-635. H. 

Gives the account of Madoc, and add?, "If there is any truth in the story, 
Madoc probably landed to the North of Virginia." 

Zeitschrift flir allgemeine Erdkunde. Berlin, April, 1864. 
BM. Ostasien und Westamerica, von K : F. Neumann. 

In favor of the populating of America from Asia. Contains the claim of 
Hoei Shin, which the writer believes. 

American bibliopolist. N. Y., Feb., 1869. pp. 47-50. H. 

An excellent bibliography of the Madoc claim. 



PEE-COLUMRIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 149 

Gaffarel, Paul, Etudes sur les rapports tie I'Anierique et de 
rAneien Continent avant Christophe Colomb. Paris, 1869. pp. 
217-221. BP. 

Favorable. 

Willis, W: Documentary history of the State of Maine. 
(Maine Hist. Soc. 2d ser., v. 1.) Portland, 1869. vol. 1, History 
of the discovery of the East Coast of Xorth America, by J. G. 
Kohl. pp. 59-60. H. 

Claim of Madoc mentioned, but no view expressed. 

Baldwin, J: Denison. Ancient America. N. Y.. 1872. pp. 
285-287. H. 

The autlior " feels skeptical."' 

Cornhill magazine. London, Oct., 1872. pp. 453-454. H. 

Legends of Old America. 

Gives the account of the Welsh, which the writer seems to doubt. This 
article was reprinted in " Littell's living age," Boston, 1873, no. 1541, p. 762. H. 

Goodrich, Aaron. A history of the character and achieve- 
ments of the so-called Christopher Columbus. N. Y., 1874. pp. 
88-90. BP, 

Favorable. 

Gravier, Gabriel. Decouverte de I'Amerique par les Nor- 
mands au W siecle. Paris, 1874. pp. 143-145. BP. 

Favorable. 

Galaxy. N. Y., 1875. 20:519. /f. Claims to the discovery 
of America, by J : T. Short 

Unfavorable. 

Bryant, W: Cullen, and Gay, Sidney Howard. Popular his- 
tory of the United States. N. Y., 1876. 1 : 66-76. H. 

Considers the Madoc claim doubtful. 

Bancroft, Hubert Howe. The native races of the Pacific States 
of North America. N. Y., 1876. 5:116-121. H. 

The author seems to be doubtful. 

Short, J : T. The North Americans of antiquity. N. Y., 1879. 
p. 154. H. 

*'The chronicle on which the claim is based is wanting in authority." 



150 ^RE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 



V. DISCOVERY BY THE VEXETIANS. 

Zeno, Nicolo and Antorio. De i comraentarii del viaggio in 
Persia di M. Catarino Zeno J K. e delle guerre fatte nelF imperio 
Persiano, dal tempo di Ussuncassano in qua. Libri due. E dello 
scoprimento dell' isole Frislanda, Eslanda, Engrovelanda, Estoti- 
landa, e Icaria, fatto sotto il Polo Artico da due fratelli Zeni, jNI. 
Nicolo il K. e M. Antonio. Libro uno. Con un disegno partico- 
lare di tutte le dette parte di tramontana da lor scoperte. Venetia, 
1558. pp. 45-58. BM, 

This book consists of letters collected by Nicolo Zeno, who says they 
were the correspondence between his ancestors, Nicolo and Antonio Zeno, 
between the years 1380 and 1404. He says the letters, with a map, had re- 
mained in possession of the family until he saw their value and had them 
published. In these letters is a very circumstantial account of the lands 
mentioned in the title. The publisher was Francesco Marcolini. The copy 
in the British Museum is without the map. 

Ramusio, Giam Battista. Delle navigationi e viaggi. Vene- 
zia, 1550-59. [An edition, Yenezia, 1583. pp. 230-238. H.^ 

The story, taken from Marcolini's book, is given in full. 

Ortelius, Abraham. Theatrum orbis terrarum. Anvers, 1575. 
fol. 60. H. 

The whole account is given in Latin, with the map. 

Hakluyt, R : Principall navigations, voiages, and discoveries 
of the English nation. London, 1589. [An edition, London, 
1810. 3:157-166. H.^ 

Hakluyt gives perfect credence to the Zeni voyage, and inserts in full a 
translation of the work of Marcolini. 

Mercator, Gerard. Atlas, sive geographicae meditationes de 
fabrica mundi et fabricata figura. Duisbourg, 1595. [An edition, 
under the title of "Historia Mundi," London, 1635. pp. 25, 30-31, 
84-35. H.^ 

Speaks of Estotiland as a part of America, and tells what Zeno says about 
Greenland and Iceland, though he speaks as if the Zeni story was not very well 
authenticated. He does not seem to have known that the Zeni discovered, or 
even arrived at, Estotiland. 

Wytfliet, Cornelius. Descriptionis Ptolemaictie augmentum. 
Lovanii, 1597. p. 188. H. 

Mention is here made of the Zeni voyage: and on the map of America 
which Wytfliet gives, Labrador is called Estotiland. Thus Wytfliet is the first 
to connect the Zeni's discoveries with any part of America. 

Botero, Giovanni. Relaciones universales del mundo. Yalla- 
dolid, 1603. pp. 183 reverse-184. H. 



PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 151 

Says that Nicolo Zeni discovered the isle of Frisland, and also the isle of 
Drogio; hut says nothing of America. 

Purchas, S: Piirchas, his pilgrimage. London, 1625. 3:610- 

611. H. 

The Zeni story is believed in the main, but no mention is made of Amer- 
ica in connection with it. 

Pontanus, I: Rerum Danicarum historia. Amstelodami, 1631. 
pp. 755-765. BP. 

Here the Zeni story is given in full, and the author seems to agree with 
Wytfliet, to whom he refers, that the Zeni went to Labrador. 

Fox, Capt. Luke. Xorth-west Fox. London, 1635. pp. 5-12. 
CB. 

The printing of this book is very imperfect and confusing. The Zeni story 
is given Jtlength, taken from Hakluyt. Considers the lands discovered to be 
portions of America. 

Grotius, Hugo. De olivine gentium Americanarura dissertatio. 
Amst 1642. [An ed. published in Petrus Albinus' - Commentatio 
de Unguis peregrinis at que insulis ignotis." Vitebergae, 1^14. p. 
39. B3I.^ 

Speaks of Estotiland as a part of the American continent, and says that 
the Zeni discovered Frisland, but the author does not seem to ha^ e kno« n that 
they claimed also the discovery of Estotiland. 

Morisotus, Claudius Bartholomaeus. Orbis maritimi sive rerum 
in mari et littoribus gestarum generalis historia. Divione, 104J. 
p. 593. BM. 

Favorable. 



erme 



Laet, J : de. Notae ad dissertationem Hugonis Grotii de on 
gentium Americanarum. Paris, 1643. pp. 20-22. H. ^Also, 
Amst., 1644. pp. 11-12. H.^ 

We here read, " The Zeni story is deserving of suspicion." 

La Mothe le Vayer, Frangois de. La geographie du prince 
Paris, 1651. [//^ /us CEuvres. S'^ ed. Pans, 1662. p. 81J. n.\ 

Favorable. 

Hornius, G: De originibus Americanis. Hagae Comitis. 1652. 
pp. 155-156. H. 

Unfavorable "Such errors, so widely diffused, must be expunged, that 
the renSrksS impostors Say not be considered true by those who are unac- 
quainted with the matter. ' 

Hornius, G: Ulyssea. Lugduni, 1671. p. 335. BM. 
Mentions the Zeni voyage, which he believes, considering Estotiland to be 
either Scotland or Scetland. 



152 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVEKIES OF AMERICA. 

Montanus, Arnoldiis. De nieuwe en onbekende weereld. Amst., 
1671. p. 29. H. 

Favorable. 

Riccioli, J : Baptista. Geographiae et hvdrographiae reformatae. 
Venetiis, 1673. p. 89. B3L 

Says that in 1.381 the Zeni sailed to Labrador, to which some Frisland fish- 
ermen had already penetrated about 1340, and that Labrador is divided from 
Estotiland by the river Nivosus, usually called Rio Nevado. 

Beemann, J : C. Historia orbis terrarum geographiea et civilis. 
Francof. ad Oderam., 1673. [3« ed. 1685. pp. 152-153. BM.] 

Speaks of Frisland as probably a small island of North America. Says 
that not much is known about it, but that Ortelius tells us it was discovered 
by Nicolo Zeno. 

Torfaeus, Thormodus. Historia Vinlandiae antiqiife. Havniae. 
1705. Preface. H. 

"The stories which are told of the Zeni may be true/' Also, "I do not 
quarrel about the name, since Sanson d' Abbeville and the recent geographers 
recognize Terram Novani Laboratoris and Estotilandiam as synonymous; yet 
I suspect that this is not the same land as the Zeni describe." 

Stiiven, J : F : De vero Novi Orbis inventore dissertatio historico- 
critica. Francof. a. M., 1714. pp. 35-30. //. 

Unfavorable. Fully recognizes that the Zeni story was a claim to the dis- 
covery of America. 

Foscarini, M: Delia lettcratura veneziana. Padova, 1752. 1: 
406-408. H. 

The voyage of the Zeni is given as an authentic piece of history, with ref- 
erences to Marcolini's book; but no connection with America is suggested. 

Tiraboschi, Girolamo. Storia della letteratura italiana. Mo- 
dena, 1772-87. [2d ed., Modena, 1789. 5:132-135. H.^ 

GiA'es the Zeni story, of which Tiraboschi says, "The judgment of Ch. 
Foscarini alone, who has not the least doubt of the sincerity of the story, is 
sufficient to make me believe it." 

Forster, J: Reinholdt. Geschichte der entdecknngen und 
schiffahrten im Norden. Frankfurt. 1784. [An English transla- 
tion, nnder the title of " Plistory of vovages and discoveries in the 
North." London, 1786. pp. 1*78-209: H.^ 

Favorable. Considers Estland to be Shetland; Engroneland, Greenland; 
Estotiland, Newfoundland; and Drogio, Florida. 

Institut de France. Academie des Sciences. Histoire pour 
1784. Paris. 1787. pp. 430-453. Memoire sur I'ile de Frisland, 
par M. Buache. H. 



PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 153 



Gives the Zeni map, with a long discussion of the subject, the author 
arriving at the conchision that the claim is well founded. 

Monthly review. London, 1788. 78:165-166. 11. 

The reviewer of Buache's Memoir states, " We do not know which of the 
contending parties is right." 

Eggers, H : P : von. Ueber die wahre lage des alten Ostgron- 
lands. Kiel, 1794. pp. 96-116. H. 

He considers the account true, but is uncertain whether the Zeni came to 
America. 

Belknap, Jeremy. American biogTaph v. Boston, 1794. 1:67- 
85. 11. 

The Zeni narrative is here given, which the author credits in part; but he 
does not believe that the Zeni came any farther west than Greenland. 

Boucher de la Richarderie, Gilles. Bibliotheque universelle 
des voyages. Paris, 1808. 1 : 53-54. //. 

"It is to-day completely proved that the famous chart of these Zeni broth- 
ers indicates a part of America." 

Zurla, Placido. Dissertazione intorno ai viaggi e scoperte sct- 
tentrionali di Nicolo ed Antonio Zeni. Venezia, 1808. BP. 

Favorable, An exhaustive discussion of the subject. The Zeni chart is 
added. 

Annales des Voyages. Paris, 1810. 10:72-87. //." Tableau 
historique des decouvertes et geographiques des Scandinaves ou 
Normands; par Malte-Brun. 

Here is a copy of the Zeni chart, with a favorable discussion. 

Pinkerton, J : A general collection of the best and most inter- 
esting voyages and travels in all parts of the world, London, 1814. 
17:xxiv. H. 

Says of the voyage of the Zeni that it "indicates the existence of islands 
far to the northwest." 

Quarterly review. London. Oct., 1816. 16:165, note, H. 
Favorable. 

Malte-Brun, Conrad. Precis de la geographic universelle. 
Paris, 1817. pp. 280, 289. H. 

Expresses faith in the Zeni story, but says nothing of America. 

Zurla, Placido. Di Marco Polo e degli altri viaggiatori venezi- 
ani. Venezia, 1818. pp. 3-94. BP. 

The portion of this work which relates to the Zeni is little more than a 
reprint of the author's work published in 1808. 



154 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 

Barrow, Sir J : A chronological history of voyages into the 
Arctic regions. London, 1818. pp. 13-26. H. 

Favorable. 

Daru, P : Antoine Noel Bruno. Histoire de la republique de 
Venise. Paris, 1819. [2«^ ed. Paris, 1821. 6; 295-298. H.] 

Unfavorable. 

Hoff, K. Ernst Adolf von. Geschichte der durch iiberlieferung 
nachgewiesenen natiirlichen veranderungen der erdoberflache. 
Gotha, 1822. 1 : 178-202. B3f. 

Favorable. 

Biographie universelle. Zeno. Paris, 1828. 52:228-238. H. 
Inclined to be favorable. 

Irving, Washington. History of the life and voyages of Chris- 
topher Columbus. London, 1828. pp. 217-224. H. 

Here the Zeni question is- discussed at great length, and Irving says, " The 
whole story resembles much the fables circulated shortly after the discovery 
of Columbus, to arrogate to other nations and individuals the credit of the 
achievement."' 

Murray, Hugh. Historical account of discoveries and travels 
in North America. London, 1829. 1 : 28-36. JI. 

Unfavorable. Murray thinks that Estotiland was Ireland; Drogio, Spain 
or the south of France; and Estland, Shetland. 

Cooley, W: Desborough. History of maritime and inland dis- 
coverv. (Lardner s cabinet cvclopaedia.) London, 1830. 1 : 221- 
225. ^H. 

Favorable. Considers Engroneland to be Greenland; Estotiland, New- 
foundland ; and Drogio, Nova Scotia or New England. This book was reprinted 
in the "Edinburgh cabinet library." 

Biddle, R: A memoir of Sebastian Cabot. London, 1831. pp. 
328-332. II. 

Speaks of the Zeni claim as "that memorable fraud." 

Priest, Josiah. American antiquities, and discoveries in the 
West. Albany, 1833. pp. 224-240. H. 

Favorable. 

Leslie, J:, Jameson, Robert, a?id Mun-ay, Hugh. Narrative 
of discovery and adventure in the Polar Seas and Regions. N.Y., 
1833. pp. 88-89. II. 

Of the Zeni claim the authors say, "We incline to think that the passages 
which have suggested this conclusion are either misunderstood or interpo- 
lated." 



PRE-COLUMBIAX DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 155 



Nordisk Tidsskrift for Oldkyndighed. Kjobenhavn, 1833. 
1:1-35. //. Beinaerkninger om de Venezianerne Zeni tilskreviie 
reiser i Xorden, ved C: C. Zahrtmann. 

Unfavorable. Says that the chart was compiled from hearsay information, 
that Frisland is the Feroe Islands, and that the story is replete with fiction. 

Dupaix, Gruillaume. iVntiquites mexicaines. Paris, 1 834. 1 : 
162-l(Jo. BA. Recherches sur les antiquites de rAinerique du 
Nord et de rAinerique du Sud, par D: Bailie Warden. 

Favorable. The claim is also mentioned in an article by Francois C : Farcy 
(v. 1, no. 9, p. 51), but no view is expressed. 

Zahrtmann, C : C. Remarks on the voyages to the Northern 
Hemisphere ascribed to the Zeni of Venice. (Roval Geographical 
Soc.) London, 1835. 5:102sq. BP. 

This is very much the same article as that in the " Nordisk Tidsskrift." 

Rafinesque, Constantine Smaltz. The xVmerican nations. 
Phila., 1836. 2:282. H. 
Favorable. 

Humboldt, F: H: Alexander von. Examen critique de I'his- 
toire de la geographic du nouveau continent. Paris, 1837. 2: 120- 
124. H. 

"The isolation of facts, and the absence of all recrimination, remove all 
suspicion of deception, while the extreme confusion in the distances and days 
of sailing seem to prove the disorder in the compilation, and the sad condition 
of these manuscripts, which the descendants of the voyagers Zeno confess to 
have torn in pieces, being ignorant of their value.'' 

North American review. Boston, July, 1838, 47: 177-206. H. 
A favorable article by Hon. G: Folsom. 

Malte-Brun, Conrad. Geographic universelle. Paris, 1841. 
1:207-211. H. 

Favorable. Considers Estotiland to be Newfoundland; and Drogio, Nova 
Scotia and New England. 

Grbnlands Historiske Mindesmaerker. Kjobenhavn, 1845. 
3 : 529-624. H. 

An exhaustive article, by J. H. Bredsdorf, in favor of the claim. 

Colombo, Cristoforo. Select letters; ed. by R: H: Major. 
(Hakluyt Society.) London, 1847. pp. xxv-xxvii. H. 

Zeni claim mentioned by Mr. Major, but no opinion expressed. 

Robinson, Conway. An account of discoveries in the "West 
until 1519, and of vovages to and along the Atlantic coast of North 
America, from 1520 to 1573. Richmond, 1848. pp. 11-20. H. 

Unfavorable. 



156 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 



Lelewel, Joachim. Geo2:raphie du moyen age. Brux., 1852. 
4:79-108. BP. 

The discussion is chiefly in regard to the map. Considers Estland to be 
Shetland ; Frishind, the Feroe Isles : Estotiland, the mouth of the St. Lawrence ; 
and Drogio, Nova Scotia and New England. 

Haven, S : F. Archteology of the United States. {In Smith- 
sonian Institution. Contributions to knowledge. Wash., 1856. 
V. 8, art. 1. pp. 10-11. H.) 

Zeni story mentioned, but no opinion expressed. 

Brasseur de Bourbourg, C: Etienne. Vahhe. Histoire des 
nations civilisees du Mexique et de rAmerique-Centrale. Paris, 
1857. 1 : 22. H. 

Favorable. 

Palfrey, J: Goriiam. History of New England. Boston, 1858. 
1 : 59-60. //. 

Claim mentioned, but no opinion expressed. 

Peschel, Oscar Ferdinand. Geschichte des zeitalters der 
entdeckungen. Stuttg. u. Augsb., 1858. p. 107. H. 

Unfavorable. 

Domenech, Em., VnbM. Seven years' residence in the Great 
Deserts of North America. London, 1860. 1 : 60. BP. 

Claim mentioned, but no opinion expressed. 

Asher, G: M. Henry Hudson the navigator. (Hakluyt Soci- 
ety.) London, 1860. pp. clxiv-clxvii. H. 

He says that in solving the Zeni question, " No very satisfactory result has 
yet been attained." 

Gaffarel, Paul. Etudes sur les rapports de I'Amerique et de 
I'Ancien Continent avant Christophe Colomb. Paris, 1869. pp. 
261-279. BP. 

Favorable. Considers Friesland to be the Feroe Isles; Estland, Shetland; 
Bres, Bressa; Minant, Mainland; Island, Unst; Talus, Teal; Broas, Buras; 
Trans, Tronda; Engroveland, Greenland; Icaria, Anticosti, Prince Edward 
Island, or Baffin's Land; Estotiland, Labrador or Newfoundland; andDrogeo, 
Nova Scotia or New England. 

Willis, W: Doctimentary history of the State of Maine. 
(Maine Hist. Soc. 2d ser., v. 1.) Portland, 1869. vol. 1. His- 
torv of the discovery of the East Coast of North America, by J. G. 
Kohl. pp. 93-106. H. 

Favorable. A map of the Zeni discoveries is given, and conjectures as to 
the particular spots are offered. 



PEE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 157 



De Costa, Rev. B: Franklin. The Northmen in Maine. 
Albany, 1870. pp. 30-42. //. 

"The chart of the Zeni brothers/' in Kohl's work, is criticised. 

De Costa, Rev. B: Franklin. Columbus and the geographers 
of the North. Hartford, 1872. pp. 19-22. //. 

He here discusses the probability that Columbus had seen the Zeni map. 

Oornhill magazine. London, Oct., 1872. pp. 453-454. //. 
Legends of Old America. 

"The American portions of Zeno's voyage are probably nothing more 
than a clumsy interpolation into a genuine narrative of an Italian merchant's 
travels."" Tliis article was reprinted in ^'Littell's living age," Boston, 187;3. 
no. 1541, p. 765. H. 

Zeno, Nicolo and Antonio. Voyages, by R: H: Major. (Hak- 
luyt Society.) London, 1873. H. 

Contains the whole of Marcolini's work in the original, together with a 
translation. A favorable Introduction is prefixed, with a copy of the Zeni 
chart and some other maps. 

Gravier, Gabriel. Decouverte de I'Amerique par les Normands 
au x« siecle. Paris, 1874. pp. 183-211. BF. 

Favorable. A copy of the chart. Places identified. 

Massachusetts Historical Society. Proceedings. Boston, 
1875. Proc. for Oct., 1874. pp. .352-366. //. [Also separately 
issued, Boston, 1875. H.'\ On the voyages of the Venetian 
brothers Zeno, by R: H: Major. 

This is a re'sume, with the Zeni map, of Major's larger work on the sub- 
ject. 

Goodrich, Aaron. A history of the character and achievements 
of the so-called Christopher Columbus. N. Y., 1874. pp. 90-91. 
BP. 

Favorable. 



books relating to North and South America, in the librarv of the 
late J : Carter Brown. Providence, 1875. 1 : 211-213. H. 

Gives the Zeni map. The bibliography of the subject is considered. The 
author says, "It requires few arguments to show the utter falsity of the state- 
ments ma'de in the narrative of the Zeni, which more plainly appears upon an 
examination of the map accompanying the volume, where the islands referred 
to and visited are laid down.'' 

Potter's American monthly. Phila., 1875. 5:905-906. H. 
The visits of Europeans to America in the 10th and 11th centuries, 
by R: Pilon. 

Favorable. 



15S PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOYKRIES OF AMERICA. 

Bryant, W: Cullen, and Gay, Sidnev Howard. Popular his- 
tory of the United States. N. Y., 1876.' 1: 76-«5. H. 
Bryant believes that tUe Zeni story is a fabrication. 

Foster, J: Wells. Pre-historie races of the United States of 
North America. Chicago, 1878. pp. 399-400. H. 

Unfavorable. 



VI. DISCOVERY BY THE PORTUGUESE. 

Barrow, Sir J: A chronological history of voyages into the 
Arctic Regions. London. 1818. "^ pp. 37-39." H. 

Speaks of it as an established fact that John Vaz Costa Cortereal discov- 
ered Newfoundland in 1463 or 1464. He refers to Antonio Cordeiro, "Historia 
insulana das ilhas a Portugal sugeytas no Oceano Occidental, ■"■ Lisbon, 1717. 
He does not mention the page, however: and no one else has ever been able 
to find in that book anything about this claim of Corterears. 

Oooley, W: Desborough, History of maritime and inland dis- 
covery. (Lardner's cabinet cyclopaedia.) London. 1830. p. 138. 
H. 

Of Cortereal, the author says, "There seems little reason to doubt that 
he discovered Newfoundland long before the time of Cabot.'" This book was 
reprinted in the "Edinburgh cabinet library." 

Biddle, R: Memoir of Sebastian Cabot. London, 1821. pp. 
286-298. H. 

Unfavorable. Accuses Barrow of never having looked into Cordeiro's 
book; and adds, "Thus does the evidence, in support of this preposterous 
claim, disappear.'" 

Humboldt, F: H: Alexander yon. Examen critique de I'his- 
toire de la geographic du nouveau continent. Paris, 1836. 1 : 279. 
H. 

Unfavorable. 

North American review. Boston, July, 1838. 47: 179. H. 

Hon. G: Folsom says: "There is little, if any, ground for the claim."' 

Colombo, Cristoforo. Select letters; ed. by R: H. Major. 
London, 1847. (Hakluyt Society.) pp. xxvii-xxx H. 

Mr. Major's opinion is unfavorable. 

Haven, S: F. Archaeology of the United States. (In Smith- 
sonian Institution. Contributions to knowledge. Wash., 1856. 
V. 8, art. 1, p. 9. H.) 

Claim mentioned, but no view expressed. 



PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 159 



Palfrey, J : Gorham. History of New England. Boston, 181S. 
1 : 60. H. 

Claim mentioned, but no view expressed. 

Gaffarel, Paul. Etudes sur les rapports de TAmerique et de 
I'Ancien Continent avant Christophe Colomb. Paris, 1869. pp. 
328-330. BP. 

Unfavorabie. 

Willis, W: Documentary history of the State of Maine. 
(Maine Hist. Soc. 2d ser., v. 1. Portland, 1869.) vol. 1. History 
of the discovery of the East Coast of North America, by J. G. 
Kohl. pp. 165-166. H. 

Of Corterears claim, Kohl says, " For this there is no reliable evidence." 

Bryant, W: Cullen, and Gay, Sidney Howard. Popular his- 
tory of the United States. N. Y., 1876. 1 : 140-141, note. II. 

Says Biddle has shown that there is no good authority for the claim. 

Vn. DISCOVERY BY THE POLES. 

Gomara, Francisco Lopez de. Historia general de las Indias, 
con la conquista del Mexico y de la Nueva-Espana. Medina, 1553. 
[A French translation, under the title of " Histoire generalle des 
Indes Occidentales et Terres Neuves qui jusques a present ont este 
descouvertes," par Martin Fumee. Paris, 1578. p. 48, chap. 37. 

Says casually, "The people of Norway have also been there [i.e. to Labra- 
dor] with the pilot Jehan Scolve and the English with Sebastian Gavoto." 

Belle-forest, Frangois de. L'histoire universelle du monde. 
Paris, 1577. p. 356, reverse. BP. 

Favorable. 

Wytfliet, Cornelius. Dcscriptionis Ptolemaicae augmentum. 
Lovanii, 1597. p. 188. 11. 

Here it is stated that in 1476 Scolvus was carried to Labrador and Estoti- 
land. 

Pontanus, I: Rerum Danicarum historia. Amst., 1631. p. 
763. BP. 

Favorable. Quotes from Wytfleit. 

Morisotus, Claudius Bartholomaeus. Orbis maratimi sive 
rerum in mari et littoribus gestarum generalis historia. Divione, 
1643. p. 593. BM. 

Favorable. 



IGO PKE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 



Hornius, G: Ulyssea. Lugduni, 1671. p. 335. BM. 

Says that in 1476 Scolnus discovered " f return Anian et Terram Labora- 
toris." 

Placido Zurla. Di Marco Polo e degli altri viaggiatori venezi- 
ani. Venezia, 1818. 2:2Q, note. BP. 

Favorable. 

Dupaix', Guillaiime. Antiqnites mexicaines. Paris, 1834. v. 1, 
no. 9, p. 51. BA. 

Claim mentioned in an article by Fran9ois Charles Farcy, but no view 
expressed. 

Humboldt, F : H : Alexander von. Examen critique de Fhis- 
toire de la geographie du noiiveau continent. Paris, 1837. 2 : 152- 
153. H. 

Acknowledges that he is doubtful. 

North American review. Boston, July, 1838. 47 : 179. H. 
Claim mentioned, but no opinion expressed. 

Grdnlands Historiske Mindesmaerker. Kjobenhavn, 1841. 
3:555-556,628-630. H. 

A favorable article, by C. Pingel. 

Colombo, Cristoforo. Select letters; ed. by R: H. Major. 
(Hakluyt Society.) London, 1847. pp. xxv-xxvii. H. 

Claim mentioned, but no opinion expressed. 

Lelewel, Joachim. Geographie du moyen age. Brux., 1852. 
4:105-106. BP. 

The author says that Scolnus went to Labrador. 

Palfrey, J: Gorham. History of New England. Boston, 1858. 
1:60. H. 

Claim mentioned, but no opinion expressed. 

Asher, G : M. Henry Hudson, the navigator. (Hakluyt Soci- 
ety.) London. 1860. pp. xcviii-xcix. H. 

He thinks Kolnus went to Greenland. 

Willis, W: Documentary history of the state of Maine. 
(Maine Hist. Soc. 2d ser., v. 1.) Portland, 1869. Vol. 1, History 
of the discovery of the East Coast of North America, by J. G. 
Kohl. pp. 114-115. //. 

Kohl says the voyage "probably never took place, or, at all events, had 
nothing to do with Viulaud or Maine." 



PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 161 

Gaflfarel, Paul. Etudes sur les rapports de I'Amerique et de 
TAncien Continent avant Christophe Colomb. Paris, 1869. p. 330. 
BP. 

Favorable. 

De Costa, Rev. B: Franklin. Columbus and the geographers 

of the North. Hartford, 1872. pp. 17-18. H. 

Favorable. 

Bryant, W : Cullen, and Gay, Sidney Howard. Popular his- 
tory of the United States. N. Y., 1876. " 1:139. H. 

Claim mentioned, but no opinion expressed. 

VIII. DISCOVERY BY MARTIN BEHAIM. 

Schedel, Hartmann. Registrum huius operis libro cronicarum 
cti figuris et ymagibus ab inicio mundi. Nurenburg, 1493. p. 290. 
CB. 

This book, usually called the "I^uremberg chronicle,"' states that Jacob 
Cam and Martin Behaim sailed west, and "having passed the equinoctial 
line, entered the nether hemisphere, where, fronting the east, their shadow- 
fell towards the south, and on their right hand. Thus did his industry throw 
open a new world hitherto unknown, and for which none for many years 
before had attempted to explore, except the Genoese, who failed in the 
attempt. . . . Owing to the discovery of this new world, a great quantity of 
pepper is brought to Flanders. "" 

Postel, Guillaume. Cosmographicap disciplinae compendium. 
Basilefe, 1561. p. 2. H. 

Speaks of the "Martini Bohemi fretum, a Magaglianensio Lusitano, ad 54 
gradum."" 

Stiiven, J : F : De vero Novi Orbis inventore dissertatio histor- 
ico-critica. Franco, a. M., 1714. pp. 38-43. H. 

Here is set forth the claim of Martin Behaim to the discovery of Amer- 
ica, in which the author is a firm believer.'" 

Gebauer, Georg Christian. Portugiesische Geschichte. Leip- 
zig, 1759. 1 : 123-124. BP. 

Claim mentioned, but Gebauer is doubtful. 

Tozen, E. Der wahre und erste Entdecker der neuen Welt, 
Christoph Colon. Gottingen. 1761. CB. 

Written to overthrow Behaim" s claim to the discovery of America. 

Robertson, W : History of America. London, 1777. 1 : note 
xvii. H. 

"The account of his [Behaim's] having discovered any part of the New 
World appears to be merely conjectural.'" 



162 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVElilES OF AMERICA. 

Murr, Christoph Gottlieb von. Diplomati:<clie Geschichte des 
Ritters Behaim. Xiirnberg, 1778. [A French translation in C. 
Araoretti's translation of Pigafetta's " Premier voyage aiitour du 
Monde," by H. J. Jansen. Paris. 1801. H. Also an English 
translation in J : Pinkerton's "General collection of the best and 
most interesting vovages and travels in all parts of the world." 
London, 1812. 11:392-420. H.'\ 

Behaim"s claim is discussed, and a portion of his chart is given. "The 
history and the globe of Behaim absolutely destroy all these pretensions, and 
prove "that he had no knowledge of America." 

American Philcsophical Society. Transactions. Phila., 1786. 
2:263-284. //. • 

A letter from Mr. Otto to Dr. Franklin, in which it is claimed that Martin 
Behaim first discovered America. Among other proofs the writer cites a ter- 
restrial globe made by Behaim, now in the archives of the library at Nurem- 
berg, on which we find the land that he discovered in such a position that it 
must be the present coasts of Brazil and the environs of the Straits of Magel- 
lan, says Mr. Otto. 

Belknap, Jeremy. A discour.se intended to commemorate the 
discovery of America bv Christopher Columbus. Boston, 1792. 
pp. 85-99. H. 

Unfavorable. This article was reprinted in Jeremy Belknap's "American 
biography."' Boston, 1794. 1:128-141. H. 

Oladera, Do7i Cristobal. Investigaciones historicas sobre los 
principales descubrimientos de los Espaiioles. Madrid, 1794. H. 

An exhaustive work on the claim of Behaim, attempting to overthrow it 
entirely. It contains a map of a portion of Behaim's globe. A translation 
into Spanish of Murr's article on Behaim is also given. 

Amoretti, C : Preface to a French translation of Pigafetta's 
"Premier voyage autour du Monde." Paris, 1801. pp. 21-28. H. 

The claim of Behaim is considered, and the writer thinks that, though 
Behaim first discovered America, he did not know it until after he had com- 
pared his own discoveries with those of Columbus. 

North American review. Boston, 1822. 14 : 37-38. H. 

J. G. Cogswell speaks of the assertion that Behaim discovered America 
before Columbus as " a trifling error."" 

Yates, J: V. N., and Moulton, Joseph White. History of the 
State of Xew York. X. Y., 1824. p. 104. H. 
Claim mentioned, but no view expressed. 

Irving. Washington. Historv of the life and vovages of Chris- 
topher Columbus. London, 1828.' pp. 208-212. H. 

The qnestion of Behaim is taken up at considerable length, and Irving 
explains the claim as "founded on the misinterpretation of a passage inter- 
polated in the chronicle of Hartmann Schedel.'' 



PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVEKIES OF AMERICA. 163 

Dupaix, Guillaume. A ntiquites mexicaines. Paris, 1834. 1: 
136-138. BA. Recherches siir les antiquites de rAmerique du 
Xord et de rAmerique du Sud, par D : Bailie Warden. 

Unfavorable. Mentioned, but no opinion expressed, bv Francois C" 
Farcy, vol. 1, no. 9, p. 50. . v • 

Humboldt, F : H : Alexander von. Exaraen critique de I'his- 
toire de la geographic du nouveau continent. Paris, 1837. 1 • 256 
-309. //. 

A long discussion. Unfavorable. 

Colombo, Cristoforo. Select letters: ed. by R: H: Major. 
(Hakluyt Society.) London, 1847. pp. xxxi-xxxii. H. 
Mr. Major does not favor the claim. 

Lelewel, Joachim. Geographic du moven age. Brux. , 1852. 
2: 131-132, note. BP. . s, 

Simph' says that "numerous conjectures and fables have been invented 
about Martin Behaim,"" and he refers for them to Murr and Ghillany. 

Ghillany, F. W. Gesehichte des Seefahrers Ritter Martin 
Behaim. Nlirnberg, 1853. pp. 51-70. BP. 

Favoral)le. 

Haven, S : F. Archaeology of the United States. {In Smith- 
sonian Institution. Contributions to knowledge. Wash 1856 
v. 8. art. 1. p. 10. H.) 

Claim mentioned, but no view expressed. 

Major, R : H : The life of Prince Henrv of Portugal. Lon- 
don, 1868. pp. 326-328. H. 

Here is taken up the claim of Behaim, "to whom," says the author, "has 
been erroneously attributed the first idea of the discovery of America." 

Gaffarel, Paul. Etudes sur les rapports de I'Amerique et de 
I'Ancien Continent avant Christophe Colomb. Paris, 1869. pp 
307-313. BP. ^ ^ 

Inclined to be unfavorable. 

Harper's new monthly magazine. X. Y.. 1871. 42:425-435, 
527-535. H. An examination of the claims of Columbus, bv 
Rev. M. Maury. 

Gives a map of Behaim's globe, but thinks that he placed on it land 
which corresponds to America, simply supposing it to exist there, though he 
had never himself discovered it. 

Bartlett, .J : Russell. Bibliotheca Americana : a catalogue of 
books relating to Xorth and South America in the library of the 
late J : Carter Brown. Providence, 1875. 1 : 15-16. H, ' 



164 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 

Gives an English translation of the passage in Scheders work, on which 
is based Behaim's claim. States that "the 'Chronicle,' in the handwriting 
of Schedel, is preserved at Nuremberg; but the passage contained m the 
extract above given is added in a different hand/' Bartlett therefore con- 
siders the claim unfounded. 

IX. DISCOVERY BY COUSIN OF DIEPPE. 

Memoires chronologiques pour servir a I'histoire de Dieppe, et 
a celle de la navigation frangaise. Paris, 1785. 1 : 91-98. BM. 

Says that Cousin left Dieppe at the beginning of 1488, aud at the end of 
two months arrived at the mouth of a great river, which he called Marag- 
non ■' and which has been since named the " Fleuve des Aniazones. He 
returned to Dieppe in 1489. Vincent Pincon, one of Cousin's captains, de- 
serted the people of Dieppe and went to Geneva, where it is thought he told 
Columbus of Cousin's discoveries. The author of the ''Memoires ' does not 
give his authorities for these facts. 

Estancelin, L : Recherches siir les voyages et decouvertes des 
navigateiirs norinands en Afrique, dans les Indes Orientales et en 
Amerique. Paris, 1832. pp. 332-361. BP. 

Discusses the question whether Cousin discovered America before Co- 
lumbus, and whether it was from him that Columbus obtained his knowledge. 
The author is scarcely inclined to believe it. 

Gu^rin, Leon. Les navigateurs frangais. Paris, 1846. pp. 
47-49. BP. 

Claim mentioned, but no opinion expressed. 

Parkman, Francis. Pioneers of France in the Ne'w World. 
Boston, 1865. pp. 169-170. IL 

'• The story may not be quite void of foundation." 

Gaflfarel, Paul. Etudes sur les rapports de TAmerique et de 
I'Ancien Continent avant Christophe Columb. Pans, 1869. pp. 
314-324. BP. 

Favorable. 

Bryant, W : Cullen, and Gay, Sidney Howard. Popular his- 
tory of the United States. N. Y., 1876. 1 : 139. H. 

■Unfavorable, 



